On Friday afternoon I heard that Catherine Stevenson – or Cathy Steve, to use the name she was fondly given by the Uncertainty Division – committed suicide last week.
Her long-term boyfriend Michael Nabarro has written about her here.
Catherine was the technical director for our 2003 Edinburgh show, Out of Your Mind – since then she often willingly stepped in to do the lighting for shows I was doing, including the first trial run of The Rise and Fall of Deon Vonniget and most recently the London dates of Impromime. I was always immensely grateful for her quiet efficiency and for her ability to work wonders with tiny resources within very tight time limits.
She tended to keep herself to herself – which, especially in the frantic world of theatre, was one of the reasons why she was such good company. To walk into a venue and see her calmly putting gels in lights, or to get in from a day’s awful flyering and sit down on the sofa with her, never failed to have a soothing effect.
I had no idea that she was suffering from depression – as Michael says, she kept it very well hidden.
I know that I’m one of many people for whom the world feels a slightly colder, darker place without her.
