Born October 1st 1956; died June 2012
It was tragically fitting that the final role played by Robert
Paterson, who has died unexpectedly at home, was Gonzalo in
Shakespeare's The Tempest at Dundee Rep. Gonzalo, after all, was an
honest and trusted advisor to the king, with a good and noble heart,
who provided the exiled Prospero with the basics to survive, as well as
other things to make life more bearable. It was Gonzalo too who
recognised Caliban as something beyond a mere monster, sees the beauty
on the island he is shipwrecked on, and takes joy when all are
reconciled at the end of the play. It isn't a huge role, but it is a
crucial one with which, on the few nights he played it, Paterson shared
many traits.
This could be said of so much of Paterson's career over the last thirty
years, be it as an actor, writer or director with every major theatre
company in Scotland, or in film and television appearances that
included Braveheart and Charlie Gormley's Heavenly Pursuits.
Paterson's body of work over the last ten years as a member of Dundee
Rep's ensemble company alone reveals a man with a fierce intelligence
and curiosity who possessed a mixture of stateliness and quirkiness
which, as with his approach to Gonzalo, was vital to every one of more
than fifty productions he took part in.
Paterson's career began at Glasgow University when during the autumn
term of 1976 he turned up one day as an unknown quantity for an
audition to play Thomas Beckett in a student production of T.S. Eliot's
verse play, Murder in the Cathedral. The regular members of the
company, who included at least two future TV directors, watched in
astonishment as Paterson made the part his own. The production was
subsequently entered for the National Student Drama Festival in St
Andrews, where Paterson won the festival's best actor award as well as
a rave review from Bernard Levin. After Glasgow, Paterson was awarded a
scholarship to train at the London Drama Studio.
Early work with TAG led him to new writing company Annexe, whose
commissioning board he joined. As a writer himself, early works for the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe included a play about a couple of hitmen
awaiting to meet their target, the baroque language of which is reputed
to have predated Quentin Tarrantino by a couple of decades. More
recently, Paterson penned a version of Jack and the Beanstalk for
Dundee.
As well as Dundee, Paterson formed long-standing relationships with
many theatres, including the Brunton under director Robin Peoples, the
Tron with future Royal Shakespeare company head Michael Boyd, for whom
he appeared alongside Forbes Masson in David Kane's farce, Dumbstruck,
and with Winged Horse, run by Paterson's then wife Eve Jamieson.
Paterson was a major figure too at Mull Theatre, where he first worked
in 1985, and was instrumental in introducing current artistic director
Alasdair McCrone to the venue after casting McCrone in his first
student play in his first week at Glasgow University in 1987 in much
the same way he'd found his dramatic feet a decade before.
Paterson spent much of the 1990s working alongside McCrone as actor,
director and dramaturg. Paterson adapted Iain Crichton Smith's novel,
Consider the Lillies, for the stage, and, with McCrone, co-wrote Para
Handy's Treasure and versions of Kidnapped and Jekyll and Hyde. He
directed David Hare's play, Skylight, and appeared in Death and the
Maiden, as well as one-man play, Old Herbaceous, which he's previously
performed in the 1980s, and which closed Mull Theatre's old space in
Dervaig.
Paterson had been an admirer of Dundee Rep's unique ensemble before he
joined it following stints at Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum Theatre in
Glengarry Glen Ross and Forbes Masson's debut musical, Stiff! Once he
joined, he proved himself an essential, constantly inquiring presence
under successive directors.
Paterson's stand-out roles came in plays as diverse as Peer Gynt,
Beckett's Happy Days, and most notably as crumpled academic George in a
searing performance opposite Irene MacDougall in
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In 2010, a performabnce of Equus was
cancelled after Paterson suffered a heartscare, though he was back
onstage at the earliest opportunity.
His last appearance prior to The Tempest was a sensitive and vulnerable
performance in a revival of Zinnie Harris' Further Than The Furthest
Thing, while in February he directed fellow ensemble member Kevin
Lennon in Oliver Emanuel's play, Spirit of Adventure.
Beyond the stage, Paterson was known as a maverick eccentric with a
very singular vision, and a total one-off one member of the ensemble
described as a '”holy clown”. A love of science-fiction and computer
games clearly contributed to a magical imagination, while a relish for
language and history was carried by a wisdom and an unflinching
honesty. A music fan, Paterson's arrival at the theatre was frequently
heralded by a Todd Rundgren or Steely Dan track blaring through his car
windows as he parked. Unknown to many, Paterson was a fine singer,
something he shared with his family, with whom he remained close.
Paterson wasn't without his eccentricities, which included sporting
brightly-coloured and garishly mismatched jackets and training shows,
and an obsessive collecting of soft drink cans from around the world.
For all this, it was Paterson's warmth, generosity and his soft heart
that captivated friends and colleagues. As one said, “It feels like the
biggest heart in the building has gone.”
Paterson is survived by a sister Lynn, a brother, Steve, two nieces,
and his parents, Bert and Sue.
The Herald, June 15th 2012
ends
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