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The renowned Derby Shakespeare Theatre Company celebrates 100 years of bringing the works of the Bard to city audiences in 2008. As preparations get under way for its centenary celebrations, Pat Parkin talked to a woman whose family was, at one time, the life blood of the group and who herself was once both stage manager and director – the remarkable Pat Laurie, pictured right.

Born into a family besotted by the works of William Shakespeare, former Derby photographer Pat Laurie inevitably became just as enthusiastic about the Bard.

So almost from birth, just like her three elder sisters, she was enrolled as a member of Derby Shakespeare Theatre Company where their mother reigned supreme for years as the leading lady. They could quote from all the plays and loved to sit and watch as the members rehearsed for their once-a-year production in local theatres and halls.

When it was decided to hold an exhibition to mark the company’s centenary year in 2008, it was no surprise that Pat, 79, the last of the Lauries to be associated with the theatre group and one of the first woman directors, was chosen to stage it.

Nearly 90 years ago, her grandfather, Dr Robert Laurie, was a patron of the company when he was Mayor of Derby, in 1920; her father, Alan Laurie, a highly respected doctor and pioneer in radiography was its secretary and an actor; and her mother, Ina Laurie – often referred to in those early days by her formal title of Mrs Alan Laurie or Mrs Doctor Laurie – played numerous leading roles.

“She was a wonderful actress and, in the 1920s and 30s, was held in great esteem by audiences. She played all the great roles – among them Portia, Desdemona and Olivia – and her lovely Highland accent made her a perfect Lady Macbeth.

Ina Laurie playing Lady Macbeth opposite Repton schoolmaster R E Williams in a 1934 Derby Shakespeare Theatre Company production of Macbeth

“I remember, when I was quite small, her walking around my bed rehearsing the sleep-walking scene. She was always rehearsing and a true actress. She could definitely have been a professional,” said Pat.

In fact, one of the Laurie sisters, Rona, did go into the professional theatre and, after taking small roles with Derby Shakespeare Society, studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, going on to become a highly accomplished stage actress.

Later she became a professor of speech and drama at London’s Guildhall and a respected adjudicator. Even today, at the age of 92, she still teaches.

Meanwhile, Pat was attempting to break the mould for well educated young women of the era and become a photographer.

She studied at Derby College of Art and then spent two years on a photography course in London.

This was one of the happiest times of her life for she would stay with Rona, who was working in London, and meet all her influential theatrical friends.

“It was a wonderful period of my life. I shared a flat with her and met all sorts of people like Maurice Chevalier and Ralph Lynn.

“It was strange because I moved from absolute poverty as a student one week to going to first nights in the West End the next. I learned so much. It taught me about theatre direction which I later found very useful when I was producing plays for Derby Shakespeare Society.”

Her first job was working for a famous animal photographer in Baker Street where sometimes she had to hide in a studio cupboard and make barking noises to try to make the debutante’s dogs, which were being photographed, sit up and look pert and bright.

Eventually, she returned home to Derby to set up her own photography business from the family home in Osmaston Road. She specialised in portrait photography and also did promotional photography for Royal Crown Derby. For 20 years, Pat worked for herself, using her father’s dark room – where he had once developed X-rays – to print her work.

“I used to say that he took photos of people’s insides and I did the outsides,” she laughed.

Her father had a countrywide reputation for his work in X-rays and, with a colleague, set up the School of Radiography at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary.

“He was a wonderful man, such fun and a real ladies’ man, but, sadly, he died very early, aged only 52.”

Pat continued her close association with the Shakespeare Theatre Company, taking on several responsibilities, including stage manager and then stage director.

“That was a wonderful job because you are on stage, behind the scenes all the time. You see what everyone is doing and saying and watch the audience reaction. It was a great way to learn. I had listened to and watched so many people, especially George Revill, who was a director for years. Even when I was quite small, I would sit at his feet and watch the way he would direct actors.”

She also took promotional photographs for the company’s productions which, over the years, were held at numerous local venues, including the old Grand Theatre, the old Playhouse, Bemrose School, the Railway Institute, the Guildhall and Temperance Hall.

One of Pat's promotional shots of the Merry Wives of Windsor in 1971

Eventually, in 1964, her dream came true when she was invited to take on her first role as director of The Taming of the Shrew. Then, in 1974, came her proudest moment when she received great acclaim for her work on Much Ado About Nothing.

Derby Evening Telegraph dramatic critic Geoff Hammerton said she had done a great job and described it as an “excellent production”.

Though she continued working with the company and its off-shoot theatrical groups, her final Shakespearean production was Macbeth in 1976.

“I loved directing but never liked acting myself. I liked working with amateurs, though the quality of the Shakespearean company in Derby doesn’t deserve to be described as amateur because they have always been so good.

“I liked to make the rehearsals enjoyable and I felt it a challenge to see how people, who had been working all day, could come along and put aside their own problems to concentrate on the wonderful words of Shakespeare.”

A former Derby High School pupil, Pat was due to go away to boarding school at Penrhys in Wales when the Second World War began and the pupils were evacuated to Chatsworth.

“Three hundred girls living and learning in that lovely house – it was a wonderful time of my life and a great experience. The owners, the Devonshire family, were living elsewhere at the time but they were always visiting and bringing very important people. We had such fun.”

Pat spent the last few years of her working life doing portrait photographs for W W Winter, the renowned Midland Road photography company.

• Derby Shakespeare Theatre Company’s exhibition to launch their centenary celebrations

will open at the Guildhall, Derby Market Place, on February 26 and run for a week while the company is staging King Lear. If you have any memories of watching the group's productions, click the 'discussion' link at the top of this article to add your recollections.

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County:  Derbyshire

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