I received some very sad news today from my old friends in the Carlton Dramatic Society. Philippa “Pippa” Cain (nee Booth) died suddenly on April 28th. She was a huge part of the society, driving the shows, the direction and the character of the group for several years. She met her husband Adam there, and it was a love story worthy of the stage. She leaves behind Adam and two children, Topaz Albany Zoë (aged 11) and Merlin Orion George (aged 9) – as you can tell, she was one of a kind!

Pippa’s time at the Carlton only just overlapped mine – I was never involved in one of her shows apart from creating the prorgams and websites for a couple. But I wish I had been – from the enthusiastic descriptions given by the cast and crew, they sounded like lots of fun. Pippa had a distinctive sense of aesthetics – her productions often made great use of sets and props to give a quirky style all her own. She was handy and practical as well – she made me a moulded plaster mask for one show, which I still have.

Only recently, I posted the preserved show pages for all the old Carlton shows, up to when I left the group. In particular, Pippa directed:

• Two Gentlemen of Verona
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (in Autumn)
• The Tempest

I’ve picked out some of the choicest pieces of Pippa’s original artwork from the various show pages. See the gallery below.

Judging by the emails flying around in the last couple of days, she will be sorely missed. A tragic loss.