Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Haney, Mary
Accomplished and versatile actress, Mary Haney was born in Welland Ontario in 1954, and raised in Hamilton and Toronto; she died February 24, 2020 in Stratford, Ontario at the age of 65 of lung cancer. Her father and mother met in England during the war, and moved back to Canada in 1946. Mary Haney began her theatre career as a young girl in the 1970s, working backstage at the Stratford Festival, where her mother, Sheila Haney, was an actress. Her brothers, Chris and John, were key developers of the board game, Trivial Pursuit. She graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada.
She is best known for her work at the Shaw Festival, where she was a Company member for thirty years since 1978, acting in sixty-three productions. In 1979, she performed with her mother at Shaw in The Corn is Green. She was particularly effective in comic roles and in Irish plays. Among her many diverse roles at the Shaw Festival were a disrespectful and tipsy housekeeper in When We Are Married by J.B. Priestly, and a feisty, resilient Juno Boyle in Juno and the Paycock by Sean O’Casey (both in 2014). She appeared in the title roles in Mrs. Warren’s Profession (2008), Albertine in Five Times (2009) by Michel Tremblay, and Saint Joan (1993). She performed major roles in Hedda Gabler (2012); Drama at Inish – A Comedy (2011), On the Rocks (2011), John Bull’s Other Island (2009), and Ah, Wilderness! (2004) among many others.
Her performance as Joan of Arc, “reach[ed] the sublime,” according to Maclean’s critic, John Bemrose: “Rarely has the struggle between individual conscience and the collective will been so powerfully presented.” As Mrs. Warren, a madame who runs a lucrative brothel, Haney was “electric,” according to National Post critic Robert Cushman-- emotionally-charged, ruthless, yet sympathetic in her conflict with her daughter.
Mary Haney also appeared in theatres across Canada and in the U.S. She performed for five seasons at the Stratford Festival, and acted in Farther West by John Murrell at the Tarragon Theatre.
She was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Actress for her performance in Brian Friel’s Translations at the Toronto Free Theatre, and was awarded a Johnny Award for Best Supporting Actress in the comedy Will Any Gentleman? at the Shaw Festival.
According to Haney, her acting was inspired by Maggie Smith, Judy Dench, and Pat Galloway. She in turn inspired and mentored younger actors in the Shaw Festival Company.
Sources: Shaw Festival website; L.W. Conolly. The Shaw Festival: The First Fifty Years. Don Mills: Oxford UP, 2011.
Profile by Anne Nothof, Athabasca University
Last updated 2020-02-26
Since October 2002, Athabasca University has hosted the web site, with an editorial board of theatre scholars from across Canada.
To submit an entry, please consult the guidelines for submissions.
Email your submission to: Anne Nothof, Professor Emerita, Athabasca University.
The Encyclopedia collects and disseminates information on plays, playwrights and theatre practitioners. It does not respond to requests for information, auditions, bookings, or tickets.
The Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia web site was originally conceived and developed in 1996 by Gaetan Charlebois—theatre critic, playwright, and actor.
