The Questors Archive logo

IN FONDEST MEMORY

NEVILLE BRADBURY (d.1992)

Neville Bradbury, who died in August, was that rare combination, an actor who also officiated as stage manager and in one capacity or another he served The Questors for some 36 years. My own memories of Neville, however, go back even further, to the Crescent Theatre, Birmingham, in 1951, where we played together in Ostrovsky's Wolves and Sheep.

I left Birmingham in 1953 and lost contact only to bump into him in Fleet Street in 1956. Over a drink I described The Questors and a few weeks later he was playing his first part, that of the blind soldier in John Whiting's Penny For A Song. He made an immediate impression and over the coming years
played many roles. His good voice and a commanding stage presence made him much in demand and among many parts for which he will be remembered were Fulvius in Julius Caesar and Ishmael the gypsy in my production of Maria Marten (all in the old tin hut).

In the present Playhouse I always feel his best role was the father in A Collier's Friday Night by D.H. Lawrence (which is perhaps not surprising considering his background from a mining district in Yorkshire); another outstanding performance was as the cynical soldier who acted as commentator on
the action in Lydia Ragosin's The Corruptible Crown.

In the seventies Neville decided to take up stage management and for the rest of his time here alternated between acting and backstage work, something very few members have achieved.
Another of his contributions to the theatre was as a founder-member of the Grapevine Club committee in 1958 and he was one of the early stalwarts who helped Arthur Boyd Taylor and Bill Wall get the club off the ground and see it through its teething troubles.

His last role was that of Dr. Macfarlane, the Scottish doctor in Hobson's Choice (1989) when, despite ill-health, he gave a polished performance which concealed the effort it must have cost him. After that illness prevented him from working on shows, although he continued to come down from time to time. The Grapevine has never been the same without him, which is perhaps the way he would like to be remembered.

MIKE GREEN
[Questopics 359, November 1992]


Neville Bradbury at The Questors
1956 Gilgamesh
1956 La Grammaire
1956 Penny For A Song
1956 She Stoops to Conquer
1957 The Golden Cuckoo
1957The Government Inspector
1957 Henry V
1957 Pygmalion
1958 Eurydice
1958 Julius Caesar
1958 The Long Spoon
1958 Maria Marten or The Murder in The Red Barn
1958 Summer and Smoke
1959 The Drunkard
1960 The Beggars' Opera
1960 The Tempest
1960 The Ticket of Leave Man
1961 Lady Audley's Secret
1961 The South African
1963 The Comical Lovers
1963 Don't Wait For Me
1963 Exhibitionists are Among Us
1963 Goodness Gracious! Is that Really Me?
1963 The Pedagogue
1963 The Things
1963 Who Was Hilary Maconochie?
1963 Workout
1964 Banqueting Hall Masque
1964 Dandy Dick
1964 Hindle Wakes
1964 Struggle Till Dawn
1965 Cherry Orchard
1965 Confidential Clerk
1965 Country Wife
1965 The Silver King
1966 Fairy Tales of New York
1966 Golden Savage
1966 Macbeth
1966 My Poll and My Partner Joe
1967 Corruptible Crown
1967 It Was Never So Merry, My Lord!
1967 Kill! Kill!
1968 Edward II
1968 In Search of Man

1968 The Picture
1968 Uncle Vanya
1969 Black Eye'd Susan
1969 Tango
1970 A Collier's Friday Night

1970 Othello
1971 Ding! Dong!
1971 The Rivals
1972 The Alchemist
1972 Time, Life, Sex and You Know What
1972 The Timekeeper
1973 As You Like It
1973 The Ghost Train
1974 Escurial
1974 The Grand Vizier
1974 The Late
1975 After Magritte
1975 Bye-Bye Blues
1975 The Gentle Art of Seduction
1975 The Lover
1975 Occupations
1975 The Price
1975 Transcending
1976 Faustus
1976 Sanctuary
1982 Arsenic and Old Lace
1982 Now You See Him, Now You Don't
1982 Relapse, The
1983 Columbanus
1983 A Dream of Passion
1983 Gone
1983 The Midnight Sun
1984 Abode of Peace
1984 Henry IV Part 1
1984 The Importance of Being Earnest
1984 The Master Builder
1984 Princess Ivona
1985 The Proposal
1986 Destiny
1986 Good
1986 Maria Marten or Murder in the Red Barn
1988 Love's Sacrifice
1989 Hobson's Choice