From Lesley Ferris in Columbus Ohio

Thinking about Max…..

My family moved from Queens Park in August of 1990. One of the things we knew we would miss the most was our friends in Queens Park. On numerous occasions when we made short visits to London we stayed in Queens Park with the O’Connell’s who always welcomed us. Max’s warm, quizzical, trickster presence was such a part of our time in London—and will always be so.

He retained that wonderful smile he had as a young child, which spoke of secret knowing: a smile that was crooked and upturned at the same time. Once he went to Newcastle, he entertained us with stories of the students there. He did a certain accent of the moneyed class that had us all in stitches laughing.

One of my fondest memories, however, was one of our theatre trips. Seamus organized a trip to the Drill Hall to see an alternative opera based on the legend of Gilgamesh. Rachel and Amie must have been away to university, because Max and Phoebe went with the two sets of parents. I remember clearly that Phoebe and Max sat behind us against a wall in the theatre space. They were both young teens and still at an age when they would go along with the parents.

Seamus had an enthusiasm in attending alternative opera and we were all up for joining in. Very shortly after the performance began, the actors appeared completely naked prancing across the floor like horses. There were perhaps 10 of them. It seemed to be out of the blue and in many ways did not make sense in terms of the production—but all I could think of was that Max and Phoebe were sitting together behind us watching which must have been for them a most embarrassing moment: with parents and a large group of naked actors in very close proximity as the space was intimate. Sitting out in the theatre lobby at the interval I remember all of us laughing at the absurdity of it all.