Ann Jellicoe (1927–2017)

Ann Jellicoe was born in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, England, and grew up there and in Saltburn. She attended Polam Hall school in Darlington and then Queen Margaret’s, Escrick Park, near York, before going to London to study at the Central School of Speech and Drama as World War II ended. She had had the idea of becoming an actor from very young childhood. She got experience as an actor, stage manager, and director in repertory and fringe theater and then established the Cockpit Theatre Club in London, where she produced and directed a number of experimental plays. In 1956, her own play The Sport of My Mad Mother won a prize in a competition sponsored by The Observer, and was subsequently staged by the Royal Court Theatre. Her
best-known play is The Knack, first performed at the Royal Court in 1962. It was a major hit and later adapted into a film directed by Richard Lester.
She also translated plays into English and wrote plays for children. In 1978, she set up the Colway Theatre Trust in Dorset as a venue for community plays, written for and about a specific community. In 2000, Colway Theatre relocated to Kent in southwest England and changed its name to Claque. Ann Jellicoe married as her second husband photographer Roger Mayne, with whom she had two children.