Patrick Murray: Patrick Murray, who has died aged 68, was a set and costume designer whose work encompassed drama, opera, ballet, pantomime and musicals.
During a career that spanned five decades, his designs graced theatres in Ireland, Britain and the US, although he based himself in Cork. He was proud of his native city and would live nowhere else.
Affirming his Cork identity, he had the Barrack Street Band march onstage in the opening scene of a production of La Bohème. His contribution to the arts in Ireland included a five-year stint as a member of the Arts Council, during which he was an enthusiastic champion of performance art, particularly dance. During his tenure, the council made a then record grant of €1.27 million to create a centre for dance in Dublin's city centre. Mary Cloake, director of the Arts Council, described him as a "larger than life character who imbued his extensive work in the arts with a joie de vivre that was inspirational", a view echoed by friends and colleagues.
Born in the Douglas Road area of Cork in 1938, he was the only child of Joseph Murray and his wife Kathleen (née Cotter). His father died when he was four months old and he was brought up by his mother and aunts, who shared an interest in painting and needlework and encouraged his interest in music and the visual arts. He first designed and built a model stage set before he was 10.
He was educated at Coláiste Críost Rí and the Crawford School of Art. Working one summer with London Underground, he encountered a sympathetic supervisor who arranged his shifts so that he could regularly attend the theatre. He completed his studies in Germany, having won a scholarship to the Bayreuther Festspiel Meisterklassen set up by Friedland Wagner, the composer's granddaughter and the one anti-Nazi in the family.Returning to Cork, he painted other designers' sets before designing the original productions of the plays of John B Keane for the Theatre of the South. A true theatre artist, he usually painted his sets on paint frames, whereas most designers today hand over models to be built and painted by others. He took an imaginative approach to materials, using metal, perspex and wood.
He worked for many years with Joan Denise Moriarty, director of the Irish National Ballet, and designed the company's production of The Playboy of the Western World, which with music by The Chieftains, was presented at Sadler's Wells Theatre as well as venues in Dublin, New York and Rennes.
In the course of a long association with the Dublin Grand Opera Society (now Opera Ireland), he designed Carmen, Cavalleria Rusticana, Faust, Il Trovatore, Samson and Delilahand Toscaamong others. He also directed and designed Orpheus and Eurydice.
He worked with Larry Oakes on Annieat Cork Opera House, where for 25 years he also designed the annual pantomime. For RTÉ, he designed Aidaat The Point. His West End credits include The Patrick Pearse Moteland The Au Pair Man, both by Hugh Leonard, and he collaborated with directors such as Alan Simpson and Ted Kotcheff.
His work with Phyllis Ryan's Gemini Productions included a series of plays staged at Minneapolis-St Paul. At the Abbey, he designed Frank O'Connor's The Saint and Mary Kate. Noel Pearson commissioned him to design productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoatand Side by Side by Sondheim.
For Cork Corporation he revamped the interior of City Hall, designed the Cork pavilion at the Rennes International Fair and oversaw the staging of important civic occasions such as conferrals of the freedom of the city. Other design work included backdrops for Labour Party conferences, the Cork Jazz Festival and the stamp issued by An Post in 2005 to mark Cork's year as European City of Culture. His recent productions include Die Fledermausat Cork Opera House and Someone Who'll Watch Over Meat the Cork Arts Theatre. He finalised the designs for the current Everyman Palace pantomime, Sleeping Beauty, shortly before his death. He was a member of the Institute of Designers in Ireland. His aunt Sheila Nestor, Mary O'Brien and other cousins survive him.
Patrick Murray: born November 21st, 1938; died December 20th, 2006.