So the whole school was buzzing when the young, fresh-faced drama teacher undertook the lavish production of Robert Bolt’s Play A Man for all Seasons.

With an all-girl cast, an inexperienced teacher and with no tradition of ‘acting’ in the classical sense, it was a recipe for disaster and would add to the chaos of the world outside the high walls of this very respectable convent school.

Not so. The acting was superb and the serious challenges which the play presented in terms of content, language and style were met admirably by the Upper Sixth Drama group under the direction of their teacher, Pete Postlethwaite. This was Hulme, remember, not Stratford –upon-Avon. The audience left the theatre with a sense of wonder and awe that such a performance could move, entertain and mesmerise.

 

So it was with great sadness and some nostalgia that we learnt of the untimely death of Pete Postlethwaite. We are happy to have known him before he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, before he was awarded an OBE for services to Drama, and before Steven Spielberg called him, ‘The best actor in the world.’ And whenever we talk about the ‘Swinging Sixties’ those of us who remember and were there in the audience at Loreto College in December 1969 will remember Mr Postlethwaite with pride and affection.

 

May he rest in peace.

 

Peter William Postlethwaite

16th February 1946 - 2nd January 2011