Published in The Independent 9th August 2002
Guy Vaesen
Restless Experimenter who graduated from stage hand to artist
GUY VAESEN’S various life took him from humble Origins in Ilford to a remote island off Greece, from the lowest rung of a suburban newspaper to winning one of the highest achievements in radio drama, while in the theatre he worked with some of the most notable actors of his day. Almost as a sideline, and in maturity, Vaesen set out to be an artist. Even in old age he was restlessly experimental, having several solo exhibitions backed by the British Council, his work in collections around the world.
He was born in London in 1912. His father, Johannes Vaessen, was a Belgian tailor resettled in England who during the Boer War modified his surname because of its Dutch sounding associations. Guy’s mother Mary, known as Millie, was a matriarchal figure, daughter of a stevedore. At the age of 11 Guy gained a five-year grammar school scholarship, but, having taken a holiday job with the Ilford Recorder aged 14, he decided to leave school. He reviewed silent films for the paper and his mother’s passion for the stage was fostered in Guy when he visited London theatres.
He wanted to travel. Having heard that cruise liners employed hairdressers, he took an apprenticeship, but was stopped in his tracks by an allergy to the chemicals used. There followed nine years in the surveyors’ department of Ilford Borough Council where he was, according to his son Paul, “in charge of the dustmen”. Also working for the Council was Nancy Law, a widow whom he married in 1939. They aspired to run a guesthouse, cycled to Cornwall and rented one in Looe for some 18 months’until Vaesen was called up.
He spent the Second World War in the Tank Corps. “I was trained to drive tanks, but had the misfortune to misjudge distance one day and did some damage to a pub.” The skin problem prevented his wearing army boots, he was downgraded to C class, so could not serve abroad, and was without a job until he moved to Scotland to inspect Naafi canteens.
There he formed a group of amateur players, the Florians, named after Flora Macdonald – “I was not much of an actor, but I used to direct and enjoyed it very much” – thus, launching the career for which he became best known.
Vaesen rose to regimental sergeant-major by demobilisation in 1946, rather late because of diphtheria. He was taken on as a stage hand at the Theatre Royal, Stratford, and worked his way up into stage direction. After being taken on by the Birmingham Rep, working closely with Willard Stoker; he began to get producer-type status in various provincial repertory companies: Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Oldham, York, then Scarborough for part of a summer season,
In the mid 1950s, he arrived in Bournemouth. There, Harold Pinter, to become a lifelong friend, joined his company as a leading actor, a leading actress being Vivien Merchant, Pinter’s first wife.
From 1957 to 1963, Vaesen produced at the Connaught Theatre, Worthing. After a period when he was branching out trying to get West End productions, including working with Pinter at the New Arts Theatre, he joined the BBC as a script editor under Richard Imison. (They had met in Greece, Vaesen’s love affair with the Country having begun.) Bored, however, by the desk-bound job, he joined the BBC’s Art Society. He also relieved the script editing tedium by adapting books or stage plays, as well as handling a number of productions. A high point was in 1974 jointly winning the prestigious Italia Prize. The play was The Mystery, by the writer Bill Naughton, more famous for Alfie.
Vaesen’s career as an artist developed fast. He remained keen to tackle new technical challenges, attending the Central and Camden institutes. He took part in mixed shows, such as the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the National Society (of which he was made a member in 1984) and the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
Among his commissions were a mural for a new TSB bank at Archway, in north London; paintings of interiors in Sir Fred and Lady Warner’s house in Dorset; illustrations for the first edition of Harold Pinter’s play Family Voices (1981), the playwright also acquiring rural cricket scenes by him; paintings of the writer Lady Antonia Fraser’s London drawing-room; and work for Judi Dench, Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne and Vincent Price, a noted art connoisseur. (Vaesen was a friend of Price’s wife. the actress Coral Browne. He became especially known for his distinctive screenprints.
Vaesen had a solo show at Mercer College, in New Jersey, in 1977. He was invited to lecture on writing for radio in America and while there travelled across the Country, directing a play he had written. More one-man exhibitions followed in England through the 19705 and 1980s, especially at theatrical venues, such as the National Theatre, the Redgrave Theatre, Farnham, and the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.
Retired from the BBC, Vaesen did some work for the National Theatre, then was asked by the BBC to return on a short-term contract, which was extended, to be head of Radio 3 drama.
Vaesen took parties of painters to Greece, eventually making his home in the remote island of Milos. In England, he had an arrangement with the writer Noel Blakiston and his wife that he would periodically caretake their house in Bentworth, Hampshire, when they were away, which developed into permanent residence. But, with Blakiston’s death in 1986, Vaesen needed to find a new home, and opted for Greece. The Pollonia apartment he initially acquired had too many people close by, so in 1989 he bought a seaside house, soon adding a studio extension.
He had had two solo shows in 1986, in the British Council Galleries in Kolonaki, Athens, and in Thessaloniki. About this time, the Jill Yakas Gallery in Athens began to represent him, showing him regularly until his death. He was part of the British Council’s “British Artists in Greece” Athens showin 1995, also of its “British Gallery in Greece” exhibition, in 1998. Numerous Vaesen prints of local scenes decorated Greek cruise ships.
Although he made periodic visits to friends in England, Vaesen savoured his Milos solitude, reading, gardening and busy with his art, until a few years ago, says his son Paul “he lost the appetite for it”. Return to the cold, greyness of England was now impossible. “I‘m always aware of how lucky I am to be living here,” he said. “It‘s a veritable paradise.”
DAVID BUCKMAN
Hubert John Guy Vaesen. artist and theatre and radio drama director and producer: born London 27 September 1912; married 1939 Nancy Tucker (née Law, died1989; one son); died Pollonia, Greece 15 July 2002.