Thanks be to our collaborators: meet David Robertson

David Robertson has generously donated his time and skills to support our publication, Confessions of an Ageing Tennis Player. We met at a morning rehearsal at the Workshop Theatre, where we learned to dance ‘La Comparasita’ together while gliding over a corpse, in Mrozek’s Polish comedy, ‘Tango‘.

David played a cynical, smarmy know-all and I played a callous brute of a butler. That horrific ending was strangely harmonious. It led to our friendship, with the American director (Terry Conder) joining us.

Under the title ‘Three Way Split’, we went on to stage ‘The Dock Brief,‘ ‘The Zoo Story,’ ‘The Road to Emmaus’ (from a mystery cycle) and ‘The Madness of Lady Bright’ by Lanford Wilson which appealed to me. I changed my mind, however, and stepped back from what would have been my most challenging role to date. Bottled it? Probably.

But nothing fazed David and he went onto produce the play at Leeds Polytechnic. It was a fascinating production and afterwards I went backstage and in the gloom asked a blonde where David Robertson was.  David gave him his Marlene Dietrich “Well, hello” voice, which knocked me sideways. David’s indomitable spirit won out once again.

As well as setting up Three Way  Split, David was instrumental to a whole host of small scale touring theatre which toured across the UK including Swarthmore Studio Group, Pocket Theatre, Two Way Traffic, Wales Actors Company, Leeds Actors Company, Theatre of the Dales and recently, Hidden Leeds.