 She is a long-standing collaborator with the Sydney Theatre Company and the Melbourne Theatre Company.Rabe was once described by Melbourne theatre critic Alison Croggon as having the sort of presence that "makes shy people swallow hard and lesser mortals involuntarily bow".Some of her other high-profile acting roles include Amanda Wingfield in Tennessee Williams's "The Glass Menagerie" at Belvoir, for which she won a Helpmann Award, Nora Boyle in Patrick White's "The Season at Sarsaparilla", for which she won a Green Room Award for Best Actress, Richard III in the Sydney Theatre Company production of "The War Of The Roses", which also starred Cate Blanchett as Richard II.