This page contains obituaries of theatre colleagues:
In memoriam: IAN ROBINSON (1949-2010), theatre and events designer, and friend. Paul's tribute was read by Ken Wilby at Ian's funeral on 25 January at Scott Creek, South Australia.
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Ian was a theatre designer whose ideas and attitudes were all-embracing, from operas to plays, from Iolanthe to Going Home to Playboy of the Western World, and music halls - Spring Heeled Terror - to Robyn Archer's song and dance show, Songs from Sideshow Alley. With what care and discussion he selected a veranda chair, properties, materials and the tropical vegetation for David Williamson’s Travelling North in 1979! How the spectator felt they were really in Far North Queensland! Seeing was believing! His designs for the George Darrell musical melodrama The Sunny South at the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre opened the Sydney Theatre Company in 1980, marking a turning point in transforming and resolving successfully what everyone had thought to be an 
impossibly distant and difficult stage – Ian made a stirring experience of visual theatre from a thin and disjointed script!
Ian was especially practical, as the Nimrod workshop and production staff led by Grahame Murray and Andrew Bragg would attest. He loved discoveries, but he thought through the challenges of theatre space (and budget) in a most organised, imaginative and graceful fashion, bringing all his colleagues to levels of finer insights and richer understandings. I am also certain that Ian’s visualisations were the more evocative because of his long and successful partnership with Peter Holderness, the stage photographer and lighting designer. They both knew so much about visual theatre, indeed about all the arts of the theatre. Ian was also a superb model maker, [as these photographs by Peter testify]: he worked with the leading theatre architects such as Sir Roy Grounds - on the design of the Victorian Arts Centre in Melbourne - and Harry Seidler on the new Theatre Royal in Sydney. He was an accomplished scenic artist, often painting sets for Nimrod productions, such as Makassar Reef, Romeo and Juliet and Upside Down at the Bottom of the World.
I learned a lot from Ian and from Peter. The three of us often met for dinner, and they came to stay at my house, for a holiday in Adelaide in 1981, when they were investigating a move from Alexandria to South Australia. That move did not occur for many more years; we last met in Sydney just beforehand, in 1998. During an excellent dinner, Ian’s smiling glint that characterised his spirit and zest for life was as bright as ever; but by now his design interests had grown to the whole architecture of the theatre, including nineteenth-century opera houses, witnessed by his model of the huge Opera Garnier in Paris, which conveyed such a human scale. I am looking at several photographs of the model that he sent me a couple of years back; how sad I am that Ian has passed away, but how glad I am to have known him. He was a much valued mentor and friend. He was one of the nicest and most generous people I have ever known. Thank you for a wonderful life, Ian!
Photographs of Ian Robinson's models by © Peter Holderness.
In Memoriam: DAVID CHESHIRE (1935-2010), theatre librarian and historian, friend and mentor.
This obituary was written for The Stage, 1 April 2010.
David F Cheshire was born on 27 July 1935 in Oundle and educated at Northampton Grammar School and Nottingham University. He was a qualified librarian and archivist who also worked in the theatre, firstly as a scene painter, scene-shifter and actor at Northampton Repertory Theatre in the 1950s. Influenced by the company's head of design, Osborne Robinson, his interests included stage design and theatre architecture. These became his purview as an arts and drama librarian: from 1962 to 1986 he held these posts at Staffordshire County Library, Birmingham College of Art and Crafts and Middlesex Polytechnic.
His first book was published in 1967, A Reader's Guide to Theatre Books. Later, he published Music Hall in Britain, a biography of Ellen Terry, and bibliographies of theatre architecture, design and British music hall and variety. Cheshire also wrote studies of theatre space and performance history, for feasibility studies in restoring the Old Vic, Sheffield Lyceum and Wimbledon Theatre, with architects such as RHWL. He wrote over 900 articles and encyclopaedia entries, for journals such as The Stage, The Ephemerist, Theatre Notebook and Theatre Quarterly, but perhaps his best research was for Theatrephile, a superbly illustrated journal of popular theatre which he published with Sean McCarthy from 1983 to 1990. 
At The Theatres Trust from 1986 to 1998, Cheshire edited their newsletter. Now collectors' items, these contained a mixture of his reports, news and profiles, developments and debates about theatre protection, design and conservation. He was a contributing editor to Curtains!!!, the first gazetteer of British theatres, and gave advice to many voluntary groups campaigning to reopen old theatres.
I met David during my time as a trustee of The Theatres Trust. He would sit in the corner at meetings, like a Hansard reporter, drafting minutes but never being asked for advice - although he undoubtedly knew more about the theatres under discussion than us. He was a theatrical polymath. Brian Attwood, editor of the Stage newspaper, recalls, "He began there as a conservatively suited and short-haired public servant, but developed into a Balzacian figure. David was a demon for the detail".
David’s accuracy helped to secure research contracts for an astonishing range of books and films, such as Peter Webb's Erotic Arts, Peter Noble's Orson Welles, Mark Giroud's The English Town, Allen Eyles' works for the Cinema Theatre Association, and Brian Rix's histories of farce and touring. He organised many theatre, art and museum exhibitions, and was a member of several boards - for many years on the ABTT archaeology committee, the International Shakespeare Globe education committee, the Museum of British Theatre Technology and Wilton's Music Hall.
Upon retirement from The Theatres Trust, David lived in Chichester. He died on 18 March 2010 at the Apollo Theatre, before curtain up at Jerusalem where he had gone to see Mark Rylance - the former Globe Theatre director for whom he had undertaken research. David is survived by his wife Joy, daughter Ellen and son Henry.
See this judicious article on theatre history, by David Cheshire, 2003.
In memoriam: RAYMOND STANLEY (1921-2008), Melbourne theatre critic, writer and friend. See his website here. ![LadyCrathorne_GeorgianTheatre[1]](images/6a01053588190e970b0128779f600d970c-800wi.jpg)
In memoriam: SYLVIA, LADY CRATHORNE (1942-2009), inspirational Chairman of the Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond since 1996. Leader of the theatre's award-winning restoration project and reopening in 2003; the best and hardest-working chairman I have served. Honorary Freeman of Richmond and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of North Yorkshire. Died 24 September 2009. See obituary here. The board has established the Sylvia Crathorne Memorial Trust.
In memoriam: JOHN MALCOLM (1936-2008), Co-founder of the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh and Chipping Norton Theatre, actor and friend.
This obituary appeared in The Stage, 3 July 2008:
John Malcolm, mercurial actor and co-founder of two important theatres, died in Edinburgh on 14th June 2008.
Born in Stirling in 1936, John won a scholarship to RADA in 1958. His first acting roles were at Pitlochry Festival Theatre. Then, during the Edinburgh Festival of 1962, when appearing in a Fringe show in the basement of the Paperback Bookshop, he shared discussions with the owner, Jim Haynes, about a permanent ‘fringe centre’ for the counter-culture scene. John Malcolm was determined that this should be a theatre for new plays and thus in January 1963, after also working with Richard Demarco, the first Traverse Theatre opened. The 60-seat former doss house and brothel in the Lawnmarket soon became one of the most important theatres for new writing in Britain.
John left the Traverse to pursue his acting career, working in repertory at Harrogate before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company for three years, including roles in John Barton’s production of The Wars of the Roses. He also played many television and film roles, and leads at Liverpool Playhouse, Bristol Old Vic, Newcastle Playhouse and the Royal Court Theatre. Later, he played Truscott in Kenneth Williams’ production of Loot at the Lyric Hammersmith, 1980. 
It was in Chipping Norton that John founded his second, equally enduring organisation. He established The Theatre in 1974 with wife Tamara (who he had met at the RSC), firstly staging trial pantomimes and music halls in the Town Hall with actor friends such as Dudley Sutton. These performances raised money for the purchase and first conversion of the former Salvation Army Citadel. Led by his exceptional hands-on hard work as theatre designer, builder, motivator, fund-raiser, scrounger and artistic director, the theatre changed the social life of Chippy, presenting the best small-scale touring companies, community performance and film in this 200 seat near-perfect replica of an eighteenth-century country playhouse.
John resigned from the management, and his marriage, in 1977, when Tamara continued as sole theatre director until 2001. He was an entrepreneurial, farsighted and charismatic theatre maker. He made things happen. Father of Aimée and Nathaniel, John returned to live in Edinburgh in 1994, (where we met again to discuss the fantastic progress of his prodigy-theatre).
Whilst General Manager of the Watermill Theatre, Paul Iles was in involved with The Chipping Norton Theatre Limited, as Company Secretary. The Council of Management was chaired by Elizabeth Sweeting.
In memoriam: PETER SARAH OAM (1946-2005) Chief Executive of the Theatre Royal, Newcastle upon Tyne, and best friend. Formerly Chief Executive: Contemporary Dance Trust, London, Australian Bicentennial Arts Programme, Arts Council of South Australia. Died Newcastle 8 April 2005. Tributes given at his funeral in Newcastle Cathedral on 14 April, and messages of condolence are archived here: Download Peter Sarah Tributes, 2005
Elizabeth Sweeting, theatre manager, wrote a memoir, The Dart of Chance, describing her experiences as first manager of Aldeburgh Festival, administrator of Oxford Playhouse and director of the Arts Council of South Australia. Author of the seminal Theatre Administration (1969), her life and work was celebrated at a special performance produced by Iain Mackintosh at Oxford Playhouse on 15 June 2001. Elizabeth’s friend Beris Hudson subsequently organised an annual scholarship in her name, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London.
View The Dart of Chance: click here (in PDF, 356 KB)
This obituary appeared in The Guardian, 11 December 1999:
The theatre manager Elizabeth Sweeting, who has died aged 85, was one of the most important leaders in the performing arts and a founding mother of a new profession of arts administration.
Born in Kensington, west London, the daughter of a tobacconist's shop manager, she graduated from Oxford and trained in management with Marks and Spencer. She began her career as deputy manager of the English Opera Group, which she joined at Benjamin Britten's invitation after their Glyndebourne season in 1947, dovetailing this with being the first general manager of the Aldeburgh festival from 1948 to 1955. She worked with Britten, Peter Pears, John Piper and Eric Crozier to plan the new festival around community support from Aldeburgh itself, helping to create the blueprint for many future festivals.
From there she went on to be general manager of the Oxford Playhouse for 20 years. This involved re-establishing professional theatre in the city by formulating the policy and management of Meadow Players, Frank Hauser's resident company, and encouraging the purchase of the playhouse itself by Oxford university, which she negotiated in 1961. The two organisations became a thriving educational, social and recreational amalgam of town and gown.
In her role as administrator-impresario, Sweeting brought many directors, writers and actors together in new collaborations. West End managers consistently previewed good plays at the Playhouse, and Meadow Players transferred 15 revivals or serious modern plays to London, with Sweeting organising tours of the company to 10 European theatre festivals.
During many disastrous years for the theatre in general, Oxford acquired an enviable reputation for adventurous international work - Jean Anouilh, Jean Giradoux and Ugo Betti typically, in a programme that attracted theatregoers from London. Sweeting arranged for the last train to London to be held until 11.15pm for long performances.
With no drama or theatre studies department at Oxford university, she guided and stimulated members of the student drama societies to give three-dimensional shape to their study of a play as literature. Academic forebears would have been horrified at a formal link between the university and the stage, which was still regarded as a naughty art.
At that time, the administrative side of the theatre was comparatively neglected in universities. Sweeting wrote a handbook, Theatre Administration, in 1969, which was the first British book on the subject since 1925 and remains an influential text today. She developed an in-service training scheme for theatre managers in subsidised theatre companies and was instrumental in starting the first theoretical training course at the Polytechnic of Central London in 1970.
Her book and teaching emphasised theatre as an art and business. Budgets have to be planned, approved by governing boards and sanctioned by funding bodies; income must be realistically estimated; the choice of productions cannot be made without serious consideration of their likely appeal; wages must be found to retain the best performers; and there needs to be careful and enthusiastic attention to publicity, marketing and politics.
Theatre organisation is a blend of these interests, needing, on the one hand, a visionary expansiveness, but on the other, astute management. Elizabeth Sweeting had a driving motivation and commitment, rooted in sensitivity towards artistic vulnerability and preference for working quietly behind the scenes. She was charming and kind to newcomers. She engaged at a very deep level with the organisation and policy of healthy theatrical experiment and discovery, without the flailing ego prevalent in arts management today.
In 1976, Sweeting was invited by the South Australian prime minister Don Dunstan to be arts adviser to his theatrically pace-setting government. She established the first Australian graduate courses in arts management, was director of the Arts Council of South Australia until 1981, consultant to the Adelaide festival and the state opera, and a member of the Australia Council, the federal arts funding body.
She served tirelessly on many theatre boards: for Toby Robertson, Richard Cottrell and Iain Mackintosh's Prospect Theatre Company, the restoration and reopening of the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon, the Watermill Theatre, Newbury, Chipping Norton Theatre, the Old Fire Station Arts Centre, Oxford, the Association of British Theatre Technicians and as a member of the Arts Council of Great Britain drama panel.
In retirement, Sweeting lived in Ironbridge, continuing to travel the world to see friends and theatre, offering wise counsel to the many managers who were privileged to work with her. She never married.
Paul Iles
Elizabeth Sweeting, MBE, arts administrator. Born 19 November 1914, died 7 December 1999, Sheffield.
For several references to Elizabeth Sweeting's time as administrator of Oxford Playhouse 1956-1976, see Don Chapman, Oxford Playhouse: high and low drama in a university city, Hatfield, University of Hertfordshire Press (with Society for Theatre Research), 2008. See also Oxford Playhouse 1938-2008, anniversary pages here.
