On television, she played a series regular in Call Red, and numerous supporting roles.īenedict has played the part of Iyaloja in four separate productions of Wole Soyinka's play Death and the King's Horseman: Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester directed by Phyllida Lloyd in 1990 Royal National Theatre directed by Rufus Norris in 2009 and two productions for BBC Radio 3 directed by Alby James in 1995 and directed by Pauline Harris in 2014.īenedict has worked with Lenny Henry on many occasions: supporting roles in his television series playing his character's father's girlfriend then wife in all four series of Rudy's Rare Records on BBC Radio 4 playing the lead role in the first radio play he wrote Corrinne Come Back and Gone and in two of the series of Bad Faith radio plays in which he played the lead role. īenedict has for many years worked in radio drama, where she is known for portraying the principal character Mma Ramotswe in the radio adaptations of Alexander McCall Smith's The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels. She is now an associate artist at the RSC.
īy 1994, The Independent included Benedict in a shortlist of "seasoned thoroughbred Shakespearians, gutsy actors who are assured verse speakers".
Carol Chillington-Rutter's book Enter the Body explores this subject with reference to Benedict's performance, where she explores why women of colour have traditionally been cast as Charmain and white women Cleopatra. In November 1992, Benedict was needed to step in at short notice and had not had time to fully rehearse the role. On Cleopatra, Benedict was taken on as an understudy for Clare Higgins when not many people of colour were playing the character of Cleopatra. In 1992, Benedict joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) to do three plays, Odyssey, Cleopatra and Tamburlaine. In her first ten years after completing her training, Benedict worked on the British stage in leading roles for smaller theatre companies and supporting roles for larger theatre companies until in 1988, when she received a Time Out award for Best Performance for her portrayal of Sophia Adams in Errol John's Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, directed by Maya Angelou. After leaving LAMDA, Benedict worked with Theatre in Education (TIE) in London then trained with the Black Theatre Workshop of Montréal. After two years at Kingway College, she gained entrance to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). Early life īenedict was born in Antigua and began to act at Norwood Secondary School for Girls, then Kingsway Further Education College on Gray's Inn Road, London. She won a Time Out Award for Best Performance for her portrayal of Sophia Adams in Errol John's Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, directed by Maya Angelou.
She has sold her art since 2007 and briefly retired from her brushes and easel to complete her two books.Claire Benedict (born 28 July 1951) is a British actress known for her work in classical productions on the British stage, but best known for portraying the principal character Mma Ramotswe in the continuing radio adaptations of The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Her second book, titled, “Conversations With the Tuesday Night Girls,” Is a collection of short stories about her inner circle of friends who meet every Tuesday night to chat they have been gathering since 2009.Ĭlaire has had short stories published by Story Circle Network, The Cincinnati Enquirer, and Indiana Voice Journal. It’s a story about survival in a time when mental illness was thought to be a human failing rather than a metabolic disorder that wreaks havoc on one’s thoughts. She loves chilling with family and friends, and has just completed her memoir, with the working title, “Someday You Will Understand,” about growing up with two mentally ill parents. She moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1980, where she married and raised two children while teaching art and art history for eleven years at the parochial school where her children were enrolled. Claire is a writer and an artist with a love for tennis, animals, gourmet cooking and studying French. Claire Butler was born in Dayton, Ohio, in a sleepy little part of town called North Riverdale, about a half a mile from the Great Miami River.
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