Seated by the glass sliding door looking onto the greenery and gravel of her Hobart home, actor Pamela Rabe is feeling a little “thick-headed” with a cold. Tissue tucked in one hand, she is not surprised she has fallen sick while finally allowing the harsh, erratic matriarch Violet Weston to “disappear” from her daily life.

Rabe has just flown back from the Perth Festival, where she was, in fact, energised by the cruelty of a family angrily spilling secrets about each other in US playwright Tracy Letts’ renowned 2007 play August: Osage Country.

The production premiered at Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre late last year, with Rabe winning the 2024 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Performance in a Leading Role in a Mainstage Performance for her searing portrayal of Violet. She shared the award with Tamsin Carroll, who played Violet’s eldest daughter Barbara. (Hayley McElhinney played Barbara in Perth.)

Pamela Rabe in a promotional image for Sydney Theatre Company’s Happy Days. Photo © Rene Vaile

“Everybody would always ask us as we were performing it, ‘You must be tired?’ But no, it’s such an energising piece of theatre to...