DR RODNEY SEABORN, AO OBE
Dr Rodney Seaborn died suddenly at his home in Sydney on Saturday, 17 May, 2008. He was 96. An indefatigable merry presence in the foyers and audiences of Sydney theatres, he was also an indefatigable liver of life and, at the time of his death from a heart attack, was planning an extensive overseas trip.
Dr Seaborn was a psychiatrist and businessman who amassed a fortune and spent it astutely in his chosen role as a classic theatrical angel. There is hardly a company or entrepreneurial (but broke) independent actor/director/producer in this city whose enterprise has not been aided in some way by a Seaborn helping hand.
Most famously, he purchased the Stables Theatre in Kings Cross that had once housed Nimrod and was then home to an impoverished Griffin Theatre Company. It was about to be demolished to make way for something really useful such as more apartments. Griffin’s similarly indefatigable and angelic Penny Cook went to visit Seaborn after a phone call suggesting she visit. She left with the company’s future on a secure footing.
The Stables Theatre is now owned by the foundation he set up with his cousins Leslie Walford and Peter Broughton to safeguard the building’s continued existence as the home of some of the most innovative theatre in Sydney.
NIDA also benefited greatly from Dr Seaborn’s generosity with the Rodney Seaborn Library and the foundation's theatre archives being located at its Kensington premises. Others to benefit from his careful philanthropy were Belvoir St, Bell Shakespeare and Performing Lines – the best known but not the only ones.
Dr Seaborn did not support theatre for the pop of opening night flashbulbs but because he loved it and recognised the importance of Australian theatre long before it became politically fashionable. He was a twinkling, gallantly courteous presence at any occasion that promised good theatre, good wine good companions and good conversation: preferably concurrently.
He had already been the recipient of an OA and an OBE for his services to the community, but was obviously thrilled and surprised to be given the Sydney Theatre Awards inaugural Lifetime Achievement award in 2005. Those of us who took part in that event were touched and honoured by his response.
It isn’t original to describe him as a “parfit gentil knyght” but it puts him in great company and goes some way to describe a man whose loss is irreplaceable. But we should be happy for him that when it came time, the lights went to black and there was no lingering horror.
Dr Seaborn’s funeral is at 10.30am, All Saints Anglican Church, Woollahra, on Monday, 25 May 2008.
