In heaven and earth

Actor, director, CEO, inspirational teacher, foul-mouthed raconteur — Raymond Hawthorne, who died on April 5, was all of these and more.

- PETER ELLIOTT

Curtain up. The crowd hushes. Lights up.

We see a small, dark-haired, keen-eyed boy riding his horse to school. He sings, plays piano, wins a singing competition, grows, dreams, and joins an opera company.

He joins the New Zealand Players, and the path is laid for his fiery journey.

It’s sobering to attend a funeral for someone who changed the aesthetic of New Zealand professional theatre, and to realise that your colleagues, whom he trained, are approaching their own final chorus and eventual curtain. The grey heads, walking canes and wrinkles are testament to years of glorious experience, but also emotive reminders that we ourselves are a passing generation.

It lends unexpected weight and depth to the poignancy of Raymond Hawthorne's death aged 88.

Raymond was a titan of the theatre scene, arguably birthing the profession of actor in Auckland and Aotearoa. He was one of a handful who won a grant to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada) in London, and who returned bearing world-class skills, like water to the parched.

Born in Pakipaki, near Hastings, Ray was one of three vigorous boys. He led an outdoors life, riding his bicycle 10km to piano and singing lessons. He joined the New Zealand Players in 1953, studied at Rada, and performed for some years in the UK until returning home to nurse his ailing mother before she died. One night, stargazing in Hawke's Bay, he realised he wanted to stay. His soul was tethered to New Zealand, the land, its cultures and people, Māori and Pākehā.