Legendary actress Victoria Wood has been given a huge honour with a theatre being named after her, a decade after she died aged 62, having battled cancer
Victoria Wood is to have a theatre named in her honour in her beloved Lake District. The 260-seat Old Laundry Theatre in Bowness-on-Windermere has announced that it is to become the Victoria Wood Theatre from January. Wood, who died in 2016, opened the theatre and staged several of her own works there, including Talent in 2008 and a stage adaptation of Housewife 49 in 2013.
Wood had a cottage in nearby Ambleside, which she left to her children, Grace and Henry, after her death in 2016 at the age of 62. Her will instructed them not to sell it ‘so long as it’s enjoyed by family’.
The comedian was also a trustee and patron of the Old Laundry Theatre, which was opened in 1992 by husband-and-wife team Roger Glossop and Charlotte Scott in a disused laundry. They also turned the neighbouring building into the World of Beatrix Potter attraction, which Wood officially opened.
Glossop told the Sunday Times: “People do forget very quickly. The trust is intent on people remembering Vic and her remarkable talent. So what we want from these legacy projects is to keep the name bouncing along.”
The couple first met Wood while working as stage manager and designer on Wood’s musical Talent at the Sheffield Crucible in 1978 and remained lifelong friends, going on family holidays together.
Scott explained: “With young families in tow (hers and ours), we followed Vic’s career as she toured up and down the country, always returning to re-charge in the Lake District. By the time we opened the venue in 1991, followed by the theatre in 1992, Vic, together with Alan Rickman, Griff Rhys Jones, Andre Ptaszynski, Peter James, and Alan Ayckbourn all became trustees and the journey began.”
The renaming will coincide with the world premiere of jukebox musical Fourteen Again, a brand new show featuring Wood’s music and lyrics.
Tom MacRae, who co-wrote the musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, has written the script for the show. He wants the musical to work for fans of Wood’s work and for newcomers too.
He said: ”How do you explain Victoria Wood to people who have no context for her? I say, ‘She is probably one of the most beloved British comedians of them all, working at a time when there were very few female comedians and a consensus that women weren’t funny.
“And yet you never think of her as being this trailblazer. She was just the funniest person you wanted to watch. She was just Victoria Wood. She was brilliant. There was an absolute determination within her. But everyone felt like they were friends with her.”
Wood, died from cancer aged 62 in April 2016. She found fame in the 1980s and was best known for her BBC sketch Acorn Antiques and comedy Dinnerladies. She won five Baftas including two for her one-off ITV drama Housewife, 49.
At the time of her death long-time comedy partner Julie Walters said she was “too heart sore to comment – the loss of her is incalculable”.
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Source: Mirror
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