As a theatre-obsessed teenager, I used to volunteer at the wonderful Hampstead theatre club in its early days when the director was James Roose-Evans (Obituary, 4 November). I remember well how small the Portakabin was. Before one performance, several of the audience complained that it was hot and airless. I told Roose-Evans, who immediately got a large aerosol can and went reassuringly up and down the aisles using it.
People were relieved and said they were now fine. I was impressed until Roose-Evans whispered to me that the can was completely empty, but he was pleased people felt so much better. A charming man whose acting skills came in useful that day.
Jennifer Hurstfield
London
• The obituary of James Roose-Evans rightly pays great attention to his work in theatre, but his influence as a man whose spirituality ran deeply through his creative work will live on in the lives of the many people he touched and who could count him as a wonderful friend.
He recognised the significance of ritual and the power of meditation not as some solution to be handed out on prescription, but as a discipline embedded within ourselves. Within this lay the source of the creative spirit. His warm laughter, beautiful voice and loving smile will be sorely missed. He was a dear, dear friend and guide.
Diana Luther-Powell
Higham, South Yorkshire
• The caption to the cast photo of James Roose-Evans’s stage production of The Happy Apple published with his obituary in the print edition named Pauline Collins, but not the trio of highly accomplished actors who starred with her. They were John Normington, Paul Rogers and James Villiers. All worth a mention, I think.
Clyde Jeavons
Birchington-on-Sea, Kent
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