Michael Wilkinson +
Many of you will, by now, have have been saddened by the news of the passing of long-time member Michael Wilkinson, after suffering a stroke, in September.
About 10 Semi-Circle members attended his remembrance service at the Paradieskirche in Binningen on October 1st. In accordance with Michael’s wish, the service was celebratory of his life, rather than glum, with music from ABBA – notably “I Have A Dream” and Spike Milligan nonsense poems read by Peter Hilton.
He had even written part of the script for the service himself, in advance, so he could speak “from beyond the grave”, to quote his own words.
Michael contributed to Semi-Circle in a number of ways over the years and always retained a great enthusiasm for whichever task he took on. As chairman of the Play Selection Committee, he introduced a play assessment form with a very unique scoring system for the plays. He wrote plays himself, acted, directed and absolutely loved making props. I remember well, a few years ago, Simon Kessler and I arriving at Michael’s house for the second rehearsal of “Time Flies”, which Michael was directing, and both of us were astonished to see that he had already made most of the props, many of them being made from Valser water bottles used in quite ingenious and effective ways.
Michael, his energy, creativity and enthusiasm, will be greatly missed by everyone who worked with him. Susan Aeschbach-Jagger
