Marigold Charlesworth
Theatre pioneer, director, friend, nature lover. Born on May 28, 1926, in Sussex, England; died on Sept. 12, 2015, in Bagnols-en-Forêt, France, after a brief illness, aged 89.
During the Second World War, young Marigold was sent by her family to Canada to escape the bombings in England. She lived with family friends at Bobolinks, a house on the Ottawa River near Montreal. There she learned to canoe, delighting in Canadian nature and setting the stage for a later return that would transform Canadian theatre.
After returning home, Marigold enlisted in the Women's Royal Naval Service. One of her duties was to drive a lorry for the famous Bletchley Park, the secret site of British code breakers. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she performed with repertory and touring theatre companies and in radio and television. In 1953, she joined the Shakespeare Memorial Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, where she played Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice with great actors including Peggy Ashcroft and Michael Redgrave.
But Canada had left its mark on her and, in 1956, she returned as an immigrant with her partner, Jean Roberts. They bought an old Chevrolet and, along with an Australian friend, Ruth Sobotka, drove from Toronto to Calgary. Their mission was to start their own theatre company (they chose Calgary because they believed the clean Alberta air would be healthier for Jean, a recovered tuberculosis patient). Though the theatre project failed, they made some lifelong friends and a year later the Chevrolet took them back to Toronto, where Marigold soon found work on a tour with the Canadian Players.
In 1959, Jean and Marigold found a renovated barn in Jackson's Point, Ont., that had been a summer-stock theatre. It was the Red Barn Theatre, which became the name of their new professional theatre company. In 1962 they moved the company to the Central Library Theatre in Toronto, which they ran with William Whitehead. Their productions were bold and adventurous, including Genet's The Balcony, Ionesco's The Chairs and Beckett's Happy Days. They also produced The Fantasticks, which was a great hit.
An article by Globe and Mail theatre critic Herbert Whittaker saluted Jean and Marigold for starting a new professional theatre, calling them "the brave girls." At the time, apart from thriving amateur groups, professional Canadian theatre consisted of touring companies from the United States and Britain. Moreover, provincial and federal grants to theatre did not exist.
Marigold directed for all of the major theatre companies in Canada, including Neptune Theatre in Halifax, and the Crest Theatre and Young People's Theatre in Toronto. She was the first woman invited to direct at both the Shaw Festival (Back to Methuselah) and the Stratford Festival (Much Ado About Nothing). In 1971, she joined Jean at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa as associate artistic director, directing James Reaney's Colours in the Dark and Timothy Findley's Can You See Me Yet?
Marigold also acted in many productions at the Red Barn Theatre, the NAC and the Crest Theatre, and in television dramas. In the 1960s she taught at the National Theatre School and later at George Brown College in Toronto.
In the mid-1990s, Marigold and jean retired to Bagnols-en-Forêt, a village in the south of France. After Jean's death in 2012, Marigold continued to do the things she loved: taking care of her garden and her cats and staying connected to her many friends. Apart from her talent, we remember Marigold for her kindness, her generosity of spirit and her great heart
During her years in Ottawa, Marigold created her own Bobolinks when she built a country home on the Ottawa River. There she spent many happy times, enjoying the natural world she first encountered as a girl. Fittingly, some of her ashes will be placed there.
Bena Shuster is long-time friend and colleague of Marigold's.