Ann Jellicoe

Ann Jellicoe (born 15 July 1927) is a British actor, theatre director and playwright. Although her work has covered many areas of theatre and film, she is best known for "pushing the envelope" of the stage play, devising new forms which challenge and delight unconventional audiences. As a result her dramatic career is, in many ways, unique in the twentieth century.

Biography

Jellicoe was born in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire in England in 1927 and from childhood showed an interest and an aptitude for the theatre. She attended Polam Hall School and Queen Margaret’s School in Yorkshire and studied performing arts at the Central School of Speech and Drama. This was followed by experience in repertory and fringe theatre.

In 1949 she was commissioned to undertake an investigative study into the relationship between acting and theatre architecture; the finding of this study led her to the Open stage. Jellicoe established a Sunday Theatre Club (Cockpit Theatre Club) where she produced and directed a number of plays exploring the possibilities of this form of Open stage theatre, including a one-act of her own.

Thereafter, Jellicoe used many of her plays to further explore her innovative ideas on theatre. In 1956 "The Observer" set-up a playwright’s competition to find new talent. Jellico submitted "The Sport of My Mad Mother", which won a prize in the competition. In writing this play Jellicoe applied many of the ideas she had learnt in her early years at Central School. The play was subsequently staged by the Royal Court Theatre and directed by George Devine and Jellicoe. Although originally a commercial failure, the play was later performed all over the world in many different languages. Set in a cockney neighborhood of London, it combines realism, mysticism, music, dance, and ritual to create a powerful, feminist myth about modern civilization. Jellicoe revised the original 1958 version in 1962 to create a better play.

The play's title derives from a Hindu religious saying: "All creation is the sport of my mad mother Kali (a Hindu goddess)." However, as most Londoners know, "the sport of me mad mother" is also a cockney expression implying something highly unusual.

But it was the Royal Court's production of Jellicoe’s "The Knack" in 1962 that won her the most notoriety. A major hit, the play was filmed and won the "Palme d'Or" at Cannes. The film's director was Richard Lester, who also directed movies for the Beatles; the cast included a very young, non-singing Michael Crawford and Rita Tushingham, who was then at the height of her popularity. In it a group of young, London adults clash and commiserate about how to get "the knack" with the opposite sex. The film is shown today as an example of the "British New Wave." Jellicoe has also written plays for children.

In 1962, she married photographer - Roger Mayne.

One of Jellicoe's most interesting works is a brief essay entitled, "Some Unconscious Influences in the Theatre." In a space of about thirty pages, she devises a number of complex yet common-sense theories which account for the reasons why audiences react to stage and screen as they do.

In 1978, Jellicoe set up the Colway Theatre Trust to explore the concept of Community Plays: pioneering work which she continued to develop over the next ten years. Jon Oram became artistic director of Colway Theatre in 1985 - now called Claque Theatre.

A Community Play, as devised by Jellicoe, is one in which most or all of the inhabitants of a real neighborhood or small town play improvised roles created by the playwright. The "audience" wanders into the town and experiences a new world which uses a real village and real people to create an environment they seldom forget. Jellicoe has actually staged a number of Community Plays throughout England and has encouraged other artists to create their own Community Plays.

elected works

*The Knack: A Comedy in Three Acts. London: Encore, 1962; New York: French, 1962.
*The Sport of My Mad Mother. Revised version. London: Faber, 1964; New York: Dell, 1964. Originally published in The Observer Plays, London: Faber & Faber, 1958.
*Shelley; or, The Idealist. London: Faber & Faber, 1966; New York: Grove Press, 1966.
*Some Unconscious Influences in the Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967. The Judith Wilson Lecture, 1967.
*The Giveaway: A Comedy. London: Faber & Faber, 1970.
*The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, translated by Jellicoe & Adriadne Nicolaeff. New York: Avon, 1975.
*Three Jelliplays. London: Faber & Faber, 1975. Contains You’ll Never Guess; Clever Elsie, Smiling John, Silent Peter, and A Good Thing or a Bad Thing.
*Devon, by Jellicoe and Roger Mayne London: Faber & Faber, 1975. A Shell Guide.
*Community Plays: How to Put Them On. London: Methuer, 1987.

Community Plays: Writer, Director & Producer:1978 "The Reckoning" Lyme Regis1980 "The Tide" Axe Valley1988 "Mark og Mont" (Money & Land) Holbaek. Denmark 19891989 " Under the God" Dorchester1992 "Changing Places" Woking

Community Plays by other writers:Director and/or Producer including: Howard Barker, David Edgar, Charles Wood, John Downie, Sheila Yeger + Village Community Plays by Andrew Dickson, Arnold Wesker, David Cregan, Nick Darke, Peter Terson and Jon Oram