We chat to Anna O’callaghan on her retirement from the Theatre Royal
Marketing manager for the Theatre Royal Bath Anna O’callaghan is retiring. Here, Jeffrey Davies finds out why the venue has a special place in her heart
MANY congratulations to Anna O’callaghan, marketing manager of the Theatre Royal Bath, who is on the eve of retiring from the muchenvied post she has loved for one year shy of four decades.
An impressive milestone for sure. A high-profile plum job in one of the most sought-after and most glamorous industries. Retirement must have been a difficult decision for her to make, I suggested.
“Well, firstly, thank you for your kind words. Yes, it was difficult and I shall miss it. My husband who’s a teacher retired in the summer of 2019, so I guess since he retired it’s been more likely that I was going to follow him into retirement too.
“I kind of made a decision that Easter 2021 would be my time to go no matter what. Then I was was furloughed last year which gave me a bit of a dress rehearsal for seeing what it was going to be like,” a most delightful Anna told me.
So what makes the Theatre Royal Bath such a ‘very special’ venue for Anna?
“It’s magical. When you’re sitting there and the House is full and the chandelier is glittering above you, and suddenly the show starts, it’s just an amazing place to be. You’re also never that far away from the stage which I think is nice. And it’s got so much history. The list of people who I’ve seen on that stage is just phenomenal. Peter Ustinov, John Mills, Julie
Christie, Charlton Heston, Joan Collins, John Hurt, Peter O’toole, Derek Jacobi, Mark Rylance, Joss Ackland, Ian Mckellen and Dave Allen are just some of the hundreds of actors and performers I’ve seen here,” Anna recalls nostalgically.
“I started working here in 1982. I was taken on as the secretary to the marketing manager. Ten years after that I became the marketing manager. Of course, the job’s changed massively over the years.
“The main things I do include putting together the brochures and writing the copy which sometimes means reading scripts. I do all the theatre’s advertising and I liaise with the people who put the programmes together.
“Our department also looks after the press and the website so there’s a lot happening all the time.”
Inevitably Anna has seen and lived through some major changes at the theatre during her tenure of office. “Yes I have. The main thing – the big one – is that when I started we only had one auditorium. We’ve now got three. The Main House, the Ustinov Studio and the egg. “From my work point of view, the brochure for years and years was just like a strip of paper that folded up and had about eight or nine shows on it. Now it’s a sort of small book which can have 80 or so pages which is quite a process to produce every time. But it is always lovely when we press the button and it goes off to print,” Anna said with a smile which ‘spelled’ relief. Compared with many jobs – perhaps most – Anna’s is a most interesting and fascinating one. But like all jobs, too, it must have its best and worst bits as well.
“Yes. The best bits I suppose are seeing the shows. I’ve seen at least 1,500. It’s obviously a fantastic privilege to see so much live theatre.
“There aren’t really any worst bits. However, I am always working to deadlines putting together the brochure; and shows – and actors – do drop out just as we’re about to go to press!”
Although working in the theatre for most of her life, passionate theatre-lover Anna, who lives in Bradford-on-avon, declares that she never wanted to be an actress, describing herself as a professional audience member.
“I’ve always enjoyed the theatre but never wanted to be an actress. I had no real desire to act. The closest I got to it was when we used to do a staff pantomime years ago. We used
When you’re sitting there and the House is full and the chandelier is glittering above you, and suddenly the show starts, it’s just an amazing place to be Anna O’callaghan
to perform it very, very late at night at the end of a run. But it wasn’t for public consumption!” Anna, a graduate of Manchester University, laughed.
Hertford-born Anna remembers vividly how her lifelong interest in theatre started.
“My parents used to take me and my brother to West End productions regularly from about 1970. I saw Laurence Olivier in The Merchant of Venice, Alec Guinness in A Voyage Round My Father, Peter Brook’s iconic A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Pinter’s No Man’s Land with John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson. I also remember seeing Billy with Michael Crawford among many others.”
Some 40 years and 1,500 plays and shows later, is it possible for Anna to now choose a particular favourite or most memorable drama or show. Something that still resonates?
“Oh there are lots. But there is one particular one that stands out for me. It’s a wonderful play called The Father. It started off in the Ustinov Studio with Kenneth Cranham who was fantastic in it. It’s about a man who has dementia, like my father, which obviously did resonate with me,” Anna said touchingly.
“It was the UK premiere when we had it here. It involved me reading the script, writing the copy and putting it in the brochure.
“It was very, very successful in the Ustinov Studio. It also went on to be very successful in the West End as well, with Kenneth Cranham winning the Olivier Award for Best Actor.
“It then came back to us and was on the Main House stage. It also ran on Broadway and recently it’s been made into a film with Anthony Hopkins. So in many ways we’ve sort of seen it through from its first UK appearance to becoming something bigger than that,” Anna said proudly.
Of the vast galaxy of actors and performers Anna has seen ‘treading the boards’ of the beautiful Georgian venue which opened in 1805, are there any particular favourites to recall?
“One is Albert Finney who I absolutely loved. He performed in Bath a number of times. It was wonderful to see him on our stage. One of the shows he came here in was JJ Farr. My maiden name was Farr and he signed a poster of the show for me! Somebody else who I absolutely loved was Les Dawson. He was here in Run For Your Wife which was hilarious. He was very funny. Two sorts of contrasting characters.
“Other special people were Alan Bates and Julie Walters,” Anna remembers with fondness.
Cited by numerous actors as their ‘very favourite’ venue during interviews I have done with them, does Anna feel privileged and blessed to have worked at the Theatre Royal?
“Oh absolutely. Definitely. I’ve loved it. It’s been my ideal job. Not many people can say that.”
The envy of many. Mingling with the stars. A somewhat glamorous job I commented.
“I don’t think so. No,” she answered immediately.
“It’s an office job mostly. I do a normal 9.30 to 5 ‘ish’ day most days of the week. Sometimes a bit longer. It does feel special, but it’s not glamorous,” Anna said modestly, dismissing my assumption. However she did concede that they ‘get loads of people writing in’ hoping to find work there.
No one can work in a theatre for 40-odd years without having an anecdote or two to impart I ventured.
“Yes there are many. But this one is a bit different perhaps,” Anna started.
“I had not been in my job long and I had to do some typing up of a script for Edna O’brien. It was called Flesh and Blood and Dave Allen was starring in it. It was a serious play, not a comedy. She came in to the office one day and put a yoga mat on the floor and started doing some exercises while I was typing. That’s a wonderful memory of such a wonderful writer for me.”
In 2005, Anna’s book Past Present Future: A History of the Theatre Royal Bath 1979-2005 was published. There must be another book about the venue’s subsequent years just waiting to hit the bookshelves?
“I don’t know about that. But I have written my own book which is called The Woman With The Dog. Partly about the theatre, it is to do with how I used to bring my dog Dermot to work with me every day. He used to sit on the office window sill and look outside at what was happening. He was very inquisitive! And he met a number of actors and actresses at the stage door. They all liked him.” Did Dermot ever manage to land himself a role in a production? “I’m afraid not. He could have been in The Wizard of Oz though!” Anna replied.
An accomplished writer of articles as well as brochures and books, Anna hopes to continue with her writing. Also to spend more of her time travelling with husband Danny.
“I will miss the Theatre Royal and my colleagues. But I will still be going there as a professional audience member,” she said with a lovely smile.
A welcoming and friendly face at press nights with colleague Emma Mcdermott, Anna will be sorely missed.