'I saw that the political commitments one felt boiling up were going to be overwhelming and if I stayed I was going to get Into trouble. I thought "I'm too young to go to prison", also the other half of me was saying if I want to be an actor.
"this ain't the place to do it," I mean you know that London is the Mecca.'
Janet Suzman left her native South Africa in 1959 and has received great critical acclaim as an actress in roles as varied as Hedda Gabler, Clytemnestra and Helen in The Greeks, Masha In Chekhov's The Three Sisters and Shakespeare's Kate, Beatrice and Cleopatra.
She talks to Michael Billington about her approach to acting and her recent appointment as a visiting professor In Drama at London University.
ROSEMARY HART
(Revised repeat)