Les Asmussen

Notes

LES ASMUSSEN … has appeared with most of the leading theatre companies throughout Australia. He appeared in Otherwise Engaged for the Queensland Theatre Company, Travesties and The Importance of Being Earnest for Canberra’s Fortune Theatre, a season of Shakespeare for the National Theatre in Perth and Waiting for Godot in Adelaide. In London, he worked in theatre management with Lord (Bernard) Miles at the Mermaid Theatre. In Sydney, he has been seen at the Nimrod, the Griffin, at Marian Street, the Q Theatre and at the Opera House; he has worked for the Actors’ Company, the Ensemble, at Phillip Street and at the Lookout. Among the many plays in which he has appeared: The original Sydney production of Dimboola, the Australian premieres of Play It Again Sam and The Foursome, Galileo, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Games Rule, Shadowlands (as C.S. Lewis), Flexitime, The Caretaker, Twelfth Night (Marian St.), as the Emcee in Cabaret, Pinter’s The Collection, and in 2000 appeared as Jeffrey Bernard in the Olympic Umbrella production of Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell. He is equally well known to variety audiences, having done two seasons at the Bankstown Theatre Restaurant, the legendary And Now at Last the Nibble Nobby’s Nuts Show in both Adelaide and Sydney, a year at the Golden Garter, and a lengthy and successful run at the Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL(!) In the 1970s and ’80s, in a series of pantomimes, he because known as “the last of a great and dying breed, a magnificent pantomime Dame”. He spent five years as a permanent member of the “Murder by Design” improvisatory company and (2004-2009) another five years as ghost host / storyteller for the Rocks Ghost Tours. A long-time Talking Books for the Blind reader, he has twice been nominated for the prestigious Talking Book of the Year award. He was seen (in Coogee!) as Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night for the inaugural council-sponsored Shakespeare-in-the-Park. He appeared for Shakespeare Globe in the 2003 season of King Lear as Kent, and in the 2004 season he again appeared in King Lear (this time as Fool) and also played Trinculo in The Tempest. Shakespeare Globe invited him back in 2007 to play Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet. He was also an adjudicator for the 2004 and 2005 Shakespeare Globe Youth Festivals. His many television credits date back to THAT notorious episode of You Can’t See ‘Round Corners, Homicide, Sons and Daughters, The Restless Years to, more recently, two episodes of Water Rats, All Saints, the film of Peter Yeldham’s Reprisal, Close Contact for the 7 Network, Rake (ABC) and the Channel 9 drama series, Hyde & Seek. He was seen in the 2009 Tropfest contender, M.P.O., and a role was created for him in the highly-regarded short film, Je Vous Aime. Au Revoir (2009), and in 2010, he appeared in another short film, Adult Entertainment. Feature film appearances include Damaged Goods and its sequel. Damaged Goods had its world premiere at the Mardi Gras Film Festival, and proved to be so successful, a sequel, entitled Older’n Last Time, world-premiered at the following year’s Mardi Gras Film Festival. In 2010, he played the title role in An Inspector Calls for the Actors’ Forum. 2011: on-screen in the comedy Dead Cat Porn and on stage in David Williamson’s Money and Friends for the Actors’ Forum and Playing the Victim for Tredwood Productions at the Tap Gallery. In 2012, he toured from Adelaide to Cooktown for School Performance Tours in two plays and he directed Don Reid and Jacqueline Kott in On Golden Pond for the Actors’ Forum. In 2013, he again toured for School Performance Tours, as well as directing The Innocents and appearing in Neil Simon’s The Prisoner of Second Avenue for the Actors’ Forum. June 2013 saw the publication of the eBook “And the Oscar Didn’t Go To…”, his first co-written published work, a “very funny, light-hearted (but deeply informed) look at Oscar upsets throughout history”. In 2014, he again toured for S.P.T. in a one-man show which had been created for him. He also appeared in 84 Charing Cross Road for the Actors’ Forum. In 2015, Crazy Brave as part of the Sydney Fringe Festival. In 2016, Proclo in the Australian premiere of Terrence McNally’s The Ritz. In August 2016, he was invited to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to appear in The Fabulous Punch and Judy Show, which became one of the hits of that year’s Festival. There were subsequent performances in Brighton and London. 2017: The HIV Monologues (Sydney Fringe) 2018: Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound. In 2018, 2019 and 2020, he was the host of the awards nights for the Film Critics Circle of Australia. During the lockdown, he did one zoom play, Twelfth Night (third time, this time as Sir Toby). 2022: Chimerica His new book, “What Were They Thinking? 100 (More or Less) of the Worst Movies Ever Made… and How They Got That Way” was published in 2020 and re-printed in 2021.