Actress cycles to work

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32665, 22 July 1971, Page 6

Actress cycles to work

An Australian actress in “Man of La Mancha” cycles to the Theatre Royal every evening and home again to her motel, except when it rains hard and she takes a taxi.

“I keep close to the left on the road and hope car-drivers will see my red reflector,” Patricia Harrison said yesterday. “I'm really quite brave.”

When other visitore would drive or walk to see Christchurch Miss Harrison rides the sturdy bicycle she has hired. If she lived in Christchurch she would buy one.

“I couldn’t afford a car at New Zealand prices and 1 don’t like walking,” she said. “I got a fad for a bicycle when I was in Norfolk a few years ago, and I cycled round the countryside for the exercise. When I found Christchurch was so beautifully flat, I decided I would use one again.” A tall, serene blonde, Patricia Harrison plays the role of Antonia in the show and

is standby for Suzanne Steele in the lead role of Aldonza. Like Miss Steele, she is an original member of the show, which opened in Australia for the first time in 1967. CABARET STAR

Between 1968 and 1970, she did “almost two circles of the world" playing in cabarets. She toured the west coast of the United States, Europe, and South Africa, starred in the West End of London and in other parts of Britain, before returning to Australia when “La Mancha” was mounted again last year. Miss Harrison has other talents as well as singing and acting. She has been a newspaper columnist in South Australia and was a freelance writer and narrator of documentaries for the Australian Broadcasting Commission in Adelaide.

When her present tour finishes, she hopes to put down her roots in Australia, to have a normal life with family and friends. “I’ve been on the move since the beginning of 1967 and I would like to stay in one place for a while,” she said. A divorcee, Patricia Harrison has three daughters. She looks no more than 28, and it comes as a surprise to hear that her eldest daughter, Suzanne a television journalist in Adelaide will be 21 next month. Her second daughter, Michelle, who is 19, is a model in Adelaide and her 11-year-old, Juliette, is at boarding school. “Juliette spends her school holidays with me wherever lam in Australia. The other girls are completely independent. My daughters and I have a wonderful relationship even though I have been awav from them working so much lately,” Miss Harrison said. TIME TO SETTLE The time has come to settle and establish a home, she feels. “I want to be near the girls in case they need me. That is more important than a stage career,” she said. In the photograph at left, Patricia Harrison is seen ready to go home after rehearsing at the Theatre Royal yesterday.