Polly March, British actress and doyenne of Maltese theatre, passes away

Polly March, the Malta-born British actress who treaded the boards of major theatres across the UK and in Malta, has died at the age of 77.

Born in Malta, she went to England as a child, then trained at Guildhall. Her name in Malta was indelibly part of the Maltese theatre world and her collaborations with so many Maltese theatre companies, notably MADC.

Her roles were legion, playing the  original Mrs Beaver in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe in the West End, and for the BBC. March appeared in the majority of theatres in the UK and some abroad, and created four solo shows, one of which won a Fringe First, before being appointed Artist in Residence to New York University.

As a child March enjoyed being being taken to the theatre in London, seeing in herself the qualities of a natural born performer. “I would prance about in front of a full-length mirror in the hall… there are a couple of toe-curlingly embarrassing memories of dressing up and enacting scenes written by myself, wearing whatever I thought was suitable, in front of, to me, an admiring audience. So I suppose I was born a performer.”

She trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and a term at the Stanislavsky Institute. “I loved every moment of training, of learning. Of un-learning sometimes, because I thought I knew it all. Discipline was critical. If you were even one minute late for some classes, the door was closed and you were not allowed in, so missing sometimes your one chance of learning about whatever was happening in that class.”

Her first job was a voice over as the Wicked Queen in Snow White at the Wembley Ice Show, before going on tour as an understudy to play in almost every theatre in the UK, with plays ranging from Shakespeare to farces. “One of the upsides of doing rep was that you developed techniques for learning lines very fast. And I can still do that, even at my great age,” she told The Times in 2019.

Her solo shows included Beauty and The Bounders, about the life and work of Lilian Baylis. It won a Fringe First and Critics Choice, and she was commissioned by BBC Radio 4 to turn it into Play of The Week.

The Small Zone, about the life and poetry of the Russian dissident poet, Irina Ratushinskaya, premiered at The Royal Exchange, Manchester. The highlight was at Newcastle Playhouse, just after Ratushinskaya was released from solitary confinement in Russia and had managed to get to England, her first public appearance in the West. March played a shortened version and then shared the stage with her in a question-and-answer session. “I learned so much about courage, and the importance of laughter in the face of death.”

In Malta she worked with Nanette Brimmer on Dawn French’s My Brilliant Divorce, and she directed Two Gentlemen of Verona for Roaring Voices, at Teatru Salesjan. “Youngsters come with little or no baggage and are hungry to learn and absorb information. My greatest joy is being an enabler, helping them find their voice, develop their characters, and to do their job, which is to tell their character’s story with truth – and as little ‘acting’ as possible.”

In Malta, March also performed in many plays, including Habeas Corpus, Female of The Species,  Are you Being Served, Talking Heads, Allo Allo, Arsenic and Old Lace, Calendar Girl ,  Much Ado, The Rose Tattoo, Noises Off,  Blithe Spirit, and directed in a number of productions including The Alchemist, The Mousetrap, Winter’s Tale, The Great Big Radio Show and Blithe Spirit.