Annie Horniman

Annie Elizabeth Fredericka Horniman CH (3 October 1860 – 6 August 1937) was an English theatre matron and manager. She established the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and founded the first regional repertory theatre company in Britain at the Gaiety Theatre in Manchester. She encouraged the work of new writers and playwrights, including W. B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and members of what became known as the Manchester School of dramatists.

Annie's father allowed her to enter the Slade School of Fine Art in 1882. Here she discovered that her talent in art was limited but she developed other interests, particularly in the theatre and opera. She took great pleasure in Wagner's Ring cycle and in Ibsen's plays. She cycled in London and twice over the Alps, smoked in public and explored alternative religions.

Theatre founder and manager

Annie's first venture into the theatre was in 1894 and was made possible by a legacy from her grandfather. She anonymously supported her friend Florence Farr in a season of new plays at the Avenue Theatre, London. This included a new play by Yeats, The Land of Heart's Desire, and the première of George Bernard Shaw's play Arms and the Man. In 1903 Yeats persuaded her to go to Dublin to back productions by the Irish National Theatre Society. Here she discovered her skill as a theatre administrator. She bought a property and developed it into the Abbey Theatre, which opened in December 1904. Although she moved back to live in England she continued to support the theatre financially until 1910. Meanwhile, in Manchester she had purchased and renovated the Gaiety Theatre in 1908 and developed it into the first regional repertory theatre in Britain.

Later life

Annie moved to London where she kept a flat in Portman Square.