Loving dad greatest role for theatre icon
DAD WOULD SAY TO THEM TO NOT SWEAR TOO MUCH AS WE WOULD GO HOME AND SAY THE WORDS TO MUM IMOGEN PAINE
LOCAL theatre legend Graeme Paine OAM, who was a larrikin, big softie and would “literally do anything for his family” has been given a touching tribute from his daughter.
Mr Paine died over the weekend after a battle with progressive supranuclear palsy, leaving behind his wife Christina, children Christopher, Ben, Nick, Imogen and Matthew, two granddaughters and another due soon.
Imogen Paine recounted some touching memories of her father’s devotion to his family.
“There were so many times over the years where he would pick us up at all hours of the night and all locations around Southern Tasmania, or where we would end up with 12 people for dinner with all the ‘ring ins’,” Mrs Paine said.
“He never seemed to mind, it was just another plate on the table. He even started the Hobart theatre summer school in 2005 so that we could have something to do in the summer holidays and were not just home annoying mum.”
The renowned theatre icon was most known for his work with the Old Nick Theatre Company dating back to the 1970s, where he was either directing, performing, writing for or on the production team for more than 30 Uni Review shows.
“He would take us to the Uni Review rehearsals to get us out of the house, I saw my saw first one when I was eight years old and dad would say to them to not swear too much as we would go home and say the words to mum,” Mrs Paine said.
In 2009 Mr Paine was awarded the Order of Australia medal for his contribution to the performing arts space and he has an eponymous room at the luxury MACq 01 Hotel in Hobart as part of the “storytelling series rooms” which were “all named after movers and shakers”.
But theatre aside it was his family who were his heart and soul. “He just loved having so many children even though it could have been very challenging I’m sure having five children under nine,” Mrs Paine said.
“Many people wouldn’t know that he was the only parent who drove and us kids all had lots of weekend sports and after-school activities to go to, he would take mum to work and he would just bend over backwards for anyone anytime. I just don’t know how he fitted it all into one week.”
Mrs Paine described her father as “larger than life but a big softie teddy bear at heart” and said he and mother Christina were “one another’s everything”.
“They never had a bad word to say about each other.”