A Remembrance

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32321, 12 June 1970, Page 2

A Remembrance

(By

DAME NGAIO MARSH)

j The news of Brigid Leni- [ han’s death will have come ias a grievous shock to her | friends and old associates in | New Zealand. I think her first appearance as a player must have been ■in my- production of “A Mid.summer Night’s Dream” for the Canterbury University |Drama Society in 1945. She! [was then IS years old. Even in a minimal role her I i promise declared itself. ■ In 1949, the society was I asked to give a special performance for Sir Laurence [Olivier and the Old Vic Company, then in New Zealand. [ It was largely on the strength of Sir Laurence’s opinion of Brigid’s potential that she de-1

cided to forego the Old Vic School, to which she had gained entrance, for an immediate plunge into the British professional theatre. Meantime, Mr D. D. O'Connor, the impressario for the Old Vic, toured our Student Players in Australia, Brigid playing Desdemona in “Othello” and The Daughter in Piran■dello’s “Six Characters in [Search of an Author,” and winning superlative notices and great public acclaim. When this tour ended, she went to England. Her subsequent career there, and in Australasia, is well known to theatre people. She was a most gifted, generous, and lovable person and she will be very greatly missed.