R.I.P. Domini Blythe

[Reza]

The Toronto Star

Obituary: Domini Blythe, star of Stratford and Shaw, dies at 63

December 16, 2010


Domini Blythe, one of the great actresses of Canadian theatre, died in Montreal Dec. 15 after a battle with cancer. She was 63.

Best known for her 11 seasons at Stratford, where her leading roles included Rosaline in Love's Labour's Lost, Gwendolyn in The Importance of Being Earnest, Portia in The Merchant of Venice and Elmire in Tartuffe, Blythe was also a virtuoso screen and television performer, whose last appearance in 2009's The Trotsky found her as potent as ever.

The British-born Blythe trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company and made her London West End debut in the controversial all-nude revue, Oh, Calcutta! in 1970, opposite a man who would later be her artistic director at Stratford, as well as a lifelong friend, the late Richard Monette.

She moved to Canada in 1972 and spent three seasons at the Shaw Festival, most notably as Cleopatra in Caesar in Cleopatra.

Robin Phillips brought her to Stratford in 1975 and she rapidly climbed the ranks, leaving after five seasons to return to the RSC. She came back to Stratford for several seasons in the 1980s, but soon left the stage unofficially to concentrate on film and television,
including the popular Street Legal and Canada's attempt to create its own Dynasty, the splashy, high-budget failure, Mount Royal.

Monette called her back to Stratford in 2000, where she appeared as Gertrude opposite Paul Gross's Hamlet, remaining with the festival through 2006. Perhaps her greatest achievement during this period was her icy Goneril opposite Christopher Plummer's King Lear in the
production by Jonathan Miller that played at New York's Lincoln Center in 2004.

Blythe's final Stratford appearance was in 2006 in the one-woman show, Fanny Kemble, based on the life of the great Anglo-American actress. The play was written by Peter Hinton and commissioned for
Blythe by Stratford.

She leaves her husband, Jean Beaudin; her father, Richard Blythe; and her brother, Ben Blythe.