Anne Mayer (born Dec 5, 1933; died April 22, 2025)
Anne Mayer who died in April, was one of the most respected if not indeed a legendary Theatre PR by the time she retired.
She died in her 92nd year but in essence she continued supporting and encouraging and was actively involved in theatre, dance and arts companies into her 90s.
The many organisations she was involved with ranged across the board – from the Philharmonia Orchestra to the London Contemporary Dance Theatre at The Place (she was the inaugural press and publicity director there) to the inclusive dance company, Candoco (who work with disabled and non-disabled dancers), to the Young Vic (during David Thacker’s time there), the National Theatre, Little Angel Islington, and latterly Mark Leipacher’s ensemble, The Faction.
But in truth, Anne was always on the look-out for the innovative and offbeat. Indefatigably energetic and curious, she was often seen, even when `off duty’, catching up with performances at the smaller, alternative fringe venues. She spread her wings `far and wide’ as one close friend put it.
She and I often used to run into each other at the Arcola in Hackney, one of my favourite haunts and one of the many organisations with whom she became involved as a freelance publicist after the Royal Court and Young Vic.
Quicksilver Theatre for young people became another of her interests, and in turn David Byrne (whom she mentored when at the New Diorama, now the Royal Court’s bustling new AD) whose eye for spotting young companies caught my attention with a series of startlingly fresh productions such as Rhum and Clay’s War of the Worlds and Idle Motion’s Shooting the Light about Gerda Taro, Robert Capa’s unsung, overlooked partner.
I first got to know Anne as a theatre reviewer during her tenure as Head of Press at the Royal Court where she worked under three artistic directors – Max Stafford Clark, Stephen Daldry and Ian Rickson – and which she rated as `the pride and joy’ of her life. She was incisive, fierce, fair and very good company with a flair that may not have been totally unconnected to her American heritage where as a student at Smith College, she often used to recount, she roomed with and became a friend of, Sylvia Plath.
It was through Anne that I met Anna Deveare Smith, the great American solo artist and monologuist who brought two shows to the Royal Court. The first in 1993 – Fires in the Mirror – was a devastating portrait about the ethnic tensions between Orthodox Jews and African-Americans living in New York’s Crown Heights in Brooklyn – a tour de force and revelation to London audiences.
And it was also through Anne that I discovered Graham Cowley and Tricia Thorns’ small but perfectly formed Two’s Company whose gift for rediscovery (their WW1 plays, What the Women Did twenty years ago have stuck in my mind ever since) runs to this day with their new minted version of Lorca’s Blood Wedding cleverly relocated to Wiltshire by Barney Norris.
An avid socialiser and communicator, Anne’s knowledge and experience was hugely valued by the many organisations she worked with but it was also her enthusiasm and commitment to all artistic endeavour that also marked her out as a wise, informed audience member as well as a skilled publicist.
She even became a successful writer when after the death of her second husband John Bird, she co-authored a book with her daughter Catherine Mayer, Good Grief: Embracing Life at a Time of Death, after they were widowed within weeks of each other. (It is published by Harper Collins).
Carole Woddis
May 4, 2025