Rashomon (1965)
In February 1965 Aubrey Ellis joined PACT Theatre for the first time, appearing in Rashomon, Fay and Michael Kanin’s adaptation of Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s stories. Joan Brickhill, with whom he had already worked on Oklahoma! and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed. The cast included Patrick Mynhardt, Louis Burke and Denise van Gelder.

Aubrey played the Deputy, one of the small roles at the Rashomon Gate and the police court, and shared the assistant stage manager’s duties. The play toured Pretoria’s National Theatre and Johannesburg’s Intimate Theatre. His programme biography describes opera as his “first love” and recalls his chorus work in PACT’s Il Trovatore the year before.