Violet Olive Marriott was born on March 17, 1920, and died on December 17, 2017, aged 97....

Violet Olive Marriott was born on March 17, 1920, and died on December 17, 2017, aged 97. She was born in the East End of London and was inspired to love the stage by her grandmother, whod been a dancer at the Whitechapel Music Hall. On seeing John Gielgud in Richard of Bordeaux in 1933, she decided to become an actress, an ambition never fulfilled. During the war she worked with Frank Whittle, inventor of the turbo jet engine. After the war she applied to work for the Old Vic Theatre Company, and her long career as theatre administrator started there, also providing the opportunity to meet and work alongside of some of the most luminous actors of the 20th century, including Laurence Olivier. Here, she met director Hugh Hunt and went with him to Australia in 1955 to set up the Elizabethan Theatre Trust, the foundation for a National Theatre of Australia. On her return to the UK, she worked for the Harold Fielding artists agency and then a production agency and then returned to the Old Vic (the National Theatre at the Old Vic) meeting theatre director Frank Dunlop in the process. Dunlop was looking to start a new theatre for young people as an offshoot of the National Theatre under Olivier, and the Young Vic came into being in 1970, where she worked for 25 years. She was also administrator of the Cherub Company London led by Andrew Visnevski and travelled extensively with the company. In 2009, Vi Marriott was appointed an MBE for services to theatre and for her tireless support of young artists in theatre. She was a theatre administrator, researcher, published author (The Fools Coat, 2007) poet, traveller, occultist, art-lover and balletomane.

The following lots 732 to 757 are from her private collection:

Jackie Day, British, late 20th century, Curious Performance; signed and titled in pencil, black and red chalk (ARR)

Provenance: Vi Marriott Theatre Archive