© The Mercators 2023

We sadly lost one of our former members who died on the 29th of June 2021. Kathleen acted in a number of club productions at the Church Hill Theatre in the 1970’s and 1980’s including The Tinderbox, Confusions and When We are Married. The photograph shows her (on the right) playing Joanna Trout in J.M. Barrie’s Dear Brutus in 1981. After she left the club, she still attended some of our Club Anniversary functions and was also able to join us for our Zoom Christmas party in December 2020.

Sadly,on the morning of Sunday 15th of September 2019, we lost one of our most valued club members. Susan had been a regular participant in club productions since 2003 and made her last appearance at the 2019 Killin Komedy Festival. She will be sorely missed, but we will always treasure the many character roles she created. We fondly remember her performances in plays such as The Café, Watching the Magpies, The Worst Day of My Life and The Vow.

Choosing one example as a tribute to her memory wasn’t easy from such a wide choice, but here she is at the S.C.D.A. One Act Festival in 2010 playing Kate in On The Outside, where she has typically put so much thought into her costume and makeup.

On the morning of Thursday 12th of October 2023, we sadly lost the man who can undeniably be described as the greatest Mercator of them all. He joined the club in October 1947, making his acting debut for us two years later in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Mary Erskine School Hall in Queen Street. Seventy years later he was still acting for us at the Killin Komedy Festival. We will all have our personal favourite memories of his stage performances. Amongst mine are a mercurial “Lob” in Dear Brutus and the touching pathos in his portrayal of the poet John Keats in Amore – The Romantic Poets. Although he thoroughly enjoyed acting, he directed many more plays. His choice was not only varied but also adventurous. Highlights include David Campton’s The Cagebirds which in 1975 gained the club our first ever first place at the Edinburgh District round of the SCDA One Act Festival and his imaginative interpretations of numerous Harold Pinter short plays staged between 1981 and 1997.
He also served our club as an office bearer many times and was still our secretary at the time of his passing. Beyond that he also diligently served the SCDA at District and Divisional levels, for example as Eastern Divisional Secretary from 1970 until 1984 and his many years as SCDA Librarian in Edinburgh.

We will always fondly remember Douglas as the kind generous friend he was and for how much he gave to amateur theatre and the club he loved.  

We were saddened to hear that one of our foremost former members passed away on the 9th of February, 2022. Jean joined us back in 1963 and before she retired from the club in 1990, she had acted in over twenty five productions, directed another four and was the club President from 1974-76. She performed in a wide variety of plays such as Ladies in Retirement, Witch Errant, Quiet Weekend, Shadow in the Sun, Waiting in the Wings, The Cagebirds, Confusions, The Tinderbox, I Remember Mama, and When we are Married. Despite her many stage appearances, photographic evidence is sparse (except for a few distant shots), so here she is in formal mode at the club’s Golden Jubilee celebration at Edinburgh’s Carlton Highland Hotel in 1986.