The Questors Archive logo

IN FONDEST MEMORY

NORMAN BARWICK (d.2010)

Members will be saddened to hear that Norman died shortly before the New Year after a long illness. His design work at The Questors spanned a period of 30 years starting with The Comedy of Errors
in 1969, when he covered a circus ring in pink sawdust, to his final show The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1999. Both of these shows went to the Minack with great success. In between he designed around 30 shows ranging from classic Racine, Ibsen and Lorca to modern playwrights such as Arthur Miller and Alan Ayckbourn.

He also produced some splendid sets for the legendary Christmas melodramas. He was always stimulating to work with but he was also great fun, even when we barrowed a ton of earth to create a potato field in Fen and then had to barrow it out again at the end! Or when he created a real pond, plastic-lined, for Love's Labours Lost into which a misguided actor immediately plunged his sword. It didn't leak too much. There was one occasion when he finished painting a backcloth after the dress rehearsal. We were not sure if it was dry wnen we rolled it up just before the first night curtain. Would it roll down? Fortunately it did.

These adventures apart, he was a brilliant designer, concerned to serve the play and the director's intent with a creative imagination, flair and wit. It was a great loss when he moved to Bolsover some 20 years ago, though he was still able to work at The Questors until distance and advancing years made it too difficult. In his later years he derived much comfort and support from his wife Margaret who latterly cared for him with great devotion. Our deepest sympathy goes to her and his daughters Jo and Aphra.

Alan Chambers
(QNews 38 February 2011)

Norman Barwick at The Questors
1969 Black Eye'd Susan
1969 The Comedy of Errors
1971 Oedipus
1972 The Alchemist
1972 The Strange Case of Martin Richter
1973 Crincum Crancum
1974 The Breasts of Tiresias
1974 Cenci, The
1975 The Island
1976 Lear
1976 Love's Labours Lost
1977 Man is Man
1977 Toad of Toad Hall
1978 Loop of Time
1978 A Mad World My Masters
1978 The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew
1979 The Beggar's Opera
1979 Light Shining in Buckinghamshire
1979 The Vampire
1980 Shoeshop
1981 Othello
1981 Saturday, Sunday, Monday
1982 The Crucible
1982 End Game
1982 Love Is... (A Revue)
1982 Now You See Him, Now You Don't
1982 The Whirler
1983 Gone
1983 Gotcha!
1983 Leonardo's Last supper
1983 Midnight Sun, The
1983 Time and the Conways
1984 The Fantastic Fairground
1984 The Master Builder
1984 Sherlock Holmes
1985 Black Comedy


1985 Harry
1985 A Life
1985 Lunch Hour
1986 Albert, Make Us Laugh
1986 Can't Pay? Won't Pay!
1986 Norman Conquests
1987 Brief Lives
1987 The Man Who Shot the Tiger
1988 The Caucasian Chalk Circle
1988 House of Bernarda Alba, The
1988 Love's Sacrifice
1989 Hobson's Choice
1989 Serious Money
1990 Hello Paris
1990 Of Mice and Men
1990 Our Country's Good
1991 Botticelli
1991 The Happiest of the Three
1991 Iphigenia
1991 Medal of Honor Rag
1991 Moonchildren
1991 Stags and Hens
1991 Strange Snow
1992 A Dream Play
1992 Masterpieces
1993 Daisy Pulls it Off
1993 Fen
1993 Hello and Goodbye
1993 Much Ado About Nothing
1993 Passion Play
1993 Peter and the Wolf
1994 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
1995 Fair Slaughter
1996 Ice Cream
1997 Andromache
1999 The Merry Wives of Windsor