Toby passed away peacefully at Meadow House Hospice on August 6th at 6:30am, having been diagnosed with lung cancer a few years ago.
He has requested no funeral event, opting instead for an unattended cremation. His family are honouring that request, but will be holding a memorial for him at the end of September in The Grapevine.
We would also like to dedicate a seat in The Playhouse in Toby’s memory.
Toby wanted to thank all those who knew him for their good company and sent his wishes for health, peace, comfort, happiness and love
Alex Marker
Toby Burbidge joined the Questors in May 2011, since which time he has contributed to scores of Questors productions in many capacities both large and small. Principally active as a constructor and stage manager he became the ‘go to’ builder for productions that required large pieces of scenery or engineering. A few examples that occur to me include: the large house truck he constructed for Mother Goose, the enormous set flats that leaned inwards that he built for The Crucible and the occasion that a tiny team of three of us built the whole of a very dystopian Macbeth in 2015.
He could always sense when a show was struggling or was a little behind schedule as he would often appear and say ‘Right, what needs doing?’
After gaining experience at The Questors Toby also worked on many productions in professional theatre, both on the fringe and other larger venues. On many of these projects he collaborated with his friend Adam Smith and, for a number of years, they both undertook the heavy construction aspects of our annual pantomime.
The one task that Toby wouldn’t touch in the workshop was painting. He used to say that he could paint things black, or single colours, but that was his limit (He was after all colour blind!). I came into the workshop on one occasion and discovered him painting a gradated colour wash. ‘It looks suspiciously like you’re doing scenic painting there Toby…’, he fired back: ‘It’s not painting, it’s flat colour!’.
Toby was quite a reserved individual and didn't say much about himself, preferring instead to talk about the matter in hand. However, odd details would occasionally pop up under surprising circumstances, such as the occasion that a Greek set designer was renting our workshop space for an external build. She turned up for a production meeting and Toby started conversing with her in fluent Greek! I later learnt that he had previously lived in Greece for many years and worked as a bursar in a school out there.
Toby was taciturn but behind this quiet exterior he did occasionally exhibit hidden extrovert tendencies. One year I was watching an early performance of one of our pantomimes; as the audience settled and the lights dimmed a voice boomed out over the theatre’s PA system: ‘Good afternoon everybody! Ladies, gentlemen, boys and girls... Are you ready for this year’s Questors PANTOMIME!!’. There followed some house rules and few plot teasers all delivered with the panache you would expect from a Saturday night TV game-show host. I was naturally curious as to who was delivering this pre-show spiel and popped round backstage to find out. There, to my surprise, I found Toby striding back and forth microphone in hand in full flow. Later I passed him in the back corridor and said ‘Toby, I didn’t realise it was you!’, he replied ‘Well, someone’s got to get the audience in right frame of mind’ and promptly stalked off to push a truck on stage...
Once Toby was diagnosed with his illness he bore successive rounds of treatment with great fortitude and managed to attend his son’s wedding in America. He continued to contribute to the life of the theatre, as and when, he could. One of his last projects for us was making Long John Silver’s crutch for Treasure Island and only a couple of months ago he was still signing up for duties on the front of house steward’s rota.
Toby was a very kind and generous man, who has made a great contribution to our theatre in the time that we were lucky to have him. He will be greatly missed on many levels.
Lucy Aley-Parker
The loveliest & most unassuming man . I have a lovely video of him & Phil Lindley building my beautiful set for Water's Edge, just one of the many shows I remember him working on. Bye Toby, you'll be fondly remembered by so many at Questors.
Samantha Boffin
What a lovely, gentle, delightful man - I loved chatting to him backstage during Snow White. I’ll miss him. Goodbye Toby x
Rishi Kris Rai
My condolences to all who knew and loved him. RIP Toby.
Francis Lloyd
What a loss! The go to man for any set building. Questors is completely dependent on people like Toby. All too rare!
James Goodden
RIP Tobes. An inspiration for grumpy old men everywhere.