In Memory of
John R Barham
00 . 00 . 1934 – 17 . 01 . 2021
Ray Hopper, writing for the Wisk Newsletter in April 2022, said:
We have only recently been advised of the death of John Barham, who died in New Zealand in January 2021, at the age of 86.
A larger-than-life character, John was very active with the company between 1986 and 2003, when he and his French wife Francoise emigrated to New Zealand to be near his children and grandchildren.
He joined us a little before our 1986 production of Pygmalion, for which he was ASM, but then landed the part of the inept puppeteer Bernard in Alan Ayckbourne’s Christmas-set play, Seasons Greetings. Bernard was the brother-in-law of my character Neville, and I quickly got to know him as a great character and very competent actor. His final role in 2003 was as Stephen Spettigue, the anxious father of two attractive and much pursued daughters in Brandon Thomas’s Charley’s Aunt.
In between these he played 12 other roles, including the Count in Amadeus, Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night, Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, van Helsing in Dracula, Bottom in Midsummer Nights Dream and Charles Fox in The Madness of George III. Playing all of them with an expertise that honoured our company.
John was officially Major J R Barham, working for many years in Army Intelligence in a number of countries, including Germany and Belize. He was a fluent speaker of French, German and Russian, as well as a member of the Crimean War Society, having published a book on that subject. He also endeared himself to me as a fellow jazz enthusiast.
After they moved to New Zealand, he and Francoise were determined to maintain contact with the Wick, remaining fully paid-up members and coming back to visit us nearly every year. In the year before his death, he wrote us a fascinating account of how he and his son Blaise had mounted a touring production round parts of the South Island, of a two-handed play called Dear Lupin. This was based on real life letters between a father and son, and had originally been performed in the West End by James Fox and his son Jake. It makes fascinating reading, and you can find it in the April and June editions of our 2020 newsletters. [and a review in The News]
Rest in peace John, on the far side of the world, knowing there is always a warm place for you in our hearts here in “the old country”.