My friend Hattie Ladbury, who has died of cancer aged 47, was an actor at ease with any text and on any stage. She created the part of Sophie in Natasha Gordon’s Nine Night at the National Theatre in 2018 and was the first female Duke in Measure for Measure.
Three weeks before her death she was on stage as the Duke at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London, blazing with charisma, driving the show with wit, playfulness and anger. Nothing daunted her, and she had no interest in letting her illness get in the way.
Born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, she was the daughter of Jean Scott, who worked in educational services, and Roger Ladbury, a land agent and surveyor. She grew up in the village of Britford, and attended South Wilts grammar school.
After joining Stage 65 at the age of 10, Hattie became a leading member of the youth theatre, appearing in West Side Story and Grease, and went on to train at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where she won the Gold Medal. She later returned to Salisbury Playhouse in several productions including The Winslow Boy and The Game of Love and Chance.
In 2002 Hattie starred as Marlene in Thea Sharrock’s production of Top Girls. More major roles followed, including Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest (Bath Theatre Royal), and Luciana in Jonathan Munby’s Comedy of Errors (Sheffield Crucible).
Oliver Fenwick was the lighting designer on Comedy of Errors, and when Hattie met him she, as she put it, “threw myself at him without shame”. They married in 2007 and had two children, Lucy and Ted.
She made permanent friends on every show, and directors regularly asked her back. Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream was one of five appearances at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. Her partnership with Doug Rintoul created triumphant performances as Amanda in Private Lives, Beatrice in Much Ado about Nothing and Hester in The Deep Blue Sea. In 2018 she was cast as Sophie in Nine Night, at the National and, following ecstatic reviews, in the West End.
Tim Sheader, artistic director of Regent’s Park, said: “Hattie’s method was rigorous, no nonsense, full of humour and unsentimental heart. She filled this enormous stage here with scale and nuance and always lit up the night sky we sat below.” Michelle Terry, artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe, said: “Hattie was pure theatre. All of us at the Globe are humbled and inspired to have been even a small part of her story.”
I was lucky enough to work with Hattie on Measure for Measure, The Seven Year Itch, The Comedy of Errors, and The Norman Conquests. In rehearsal she was funny, practical and grounded. Then she would get on stage and knock you sideways with the scale of her feeling, and the truthfulness, energy and punch of her acting. She had a mercurial quickness and absolute precision. She combined a sharp eye for human folly with the courage to make herself vulnerable. She had effortless comic timing. Her performances fizzed.
She was effervescent company, too, open-hearted and generous with friends, but stoical to the point of reserve about her own difficulties. She had a fierce intelligence, a brilliant wild streak and boundless kindness.
Hattie is survived by Oli, Lucy and Ted, her parents and her sisters, Rowena and Becky.
