A Very Suitable Resting Place

After 18 months at the Birmingham Repertory Company, Ian Richardson spent 15 glorious years from 1960 to 1975 (with the odd break for 'good behaviour') gracing the stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company, for whom he was a true star and an inspiration to fellow actors.

It was in Stratford-upon-Avon, in 1960, that he met his beloved wife Maroussia, a fellow member of the Company. In Stratford, fans used to wander past his house in the hope of glimpsing their idol.

His roles for the RSC included Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Antipholus of Epheseus in The Comedy of Errors, The Herald and Marat in Marat/Sade, Frank Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Chorus in Henry V, Bertram in All's Well That Ends Well, Vendice in The Revenger's Tragedy, Cassius in Julius Caesar, Pericles, Angelo in Measure for Measure, Proteus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Prospero in The Tempest, Berowne in Love's Labour's Lost, Richard II and Bolingbroke (alternating with Richard Pasco), Iachimo in Cymbeline and both Buckingham and then the king in Richard III.

National Theatre director Nicholas Hytner begins his recollections of Ian in We Could Possibly Comment by saying, "My earliest memories as a serious theatre-goer are dominated by Ian Richardson’s incandescent performances for the RSC in the late 60’s and early 70’s."

John Sessions recalled, "He was my childhood hero and I’d grown up with all those wonderful performances at the RSC. "

Juliet Stevenson, remembers her first visit to see a professional performance of a Shakespearian play. It was in Stratford, with Ian playing Richard II. She said, "I walked into the theatre that evening one person and came out as another person. That was very largely due to Ian."

Many of his colleagues at the RSC have commented on the profound effect working with Ian had on them - how much they learnt from him, his absolute mastery of Shakespearian verse and technical brilliance and what a wonderful role model he was for fellow Company actors.

It is therefore so touching and appropriate, that Ian's final resting place is Stratford-upon-Avon.

Last November, Maroussia and younger son Miles, who has also acted with the RSC, placed Ian's ashes, with assistance from the construction workers, in the foundations of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, currently under reconstruction, Transformation Work, beneath what will be the front of the stalls.

I'm sure I won't be the only person keen to visit the new theatre when it opens next year, both to remember a dear friend, but also in the hope that there will be many glorious productions in the new theatre, worthy of the Company's great name and of a singular actor who gave so many wonderful performances at Stratford.

The nearest I got to seeing Ian Richardson play King Lear

In his 15 highly distinguished years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Ian Richardson played a variety of roles, including Coriolanus, Richard II (alternating as Bolingbroke with Richard Pasco), Richard III, Prospero in The Tempest, Cassius in Julius Caesar, Iachimo in Cymbeline, Angelo in Measure for Measure, Proteus in Two Gentlemen of Verona, Berowne in Love's Labour's Lost and what is considered to be the funniest ever Frank Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

In the celebrated King Lear production that starred Paul Scofield, he played Edmund when the Company took the play on tour in 1964. But, he never actually got to play Lear and we can only imagine the power, depth of feeling and physical presence he would have brought to the role.

In 1999, I was privileged to see Ian perform the one-man show, The Seven Ages of Man, which ran for just under a week at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford.

I'd missed his glorious years at the RSC and seeing him performing Shakespeare on stage, including a couple of Lear's speeches, was a joyful experience. For me, as well as gorging on the fabulous feast of Shakespeare he provided, the evening was memorable for another reason. When we popped in (I was there with Shirley Jacobs who, for many years, has had a webpage on Ian) to see him before the performance, he invited us out to the pub afterwards. Till that point I'd enjoyed visits to dressing rooms and this was the first of very many occasions on which I subsequently had the pleasure of spending time in Ian and his wife Maroussia's company outwith a theatre.

Sadly, Seven Ages was the nearest he got to playing the epic role. In later years he said that he no longer had the physical capacity to perform it.

But, and it was actually around the time he performed in Guildford, he did play a role - Lord Groan in the BBC production of Gormenghast - in which there was a scene in which he gave a very Lear-like and moving depiction of the Earl's descent into madness.