Programme of Events 2025
Laura Knight’s Theatre: Performance, People and Place.
Laura Knight’s extraordinarily capacious concept of theatre resulted in art which tried to capture not only the diversity of different forms of performance, but also the working environments of where and how performance is made. In discussing examples of that diversity this talk will also focus on the key personalities who facilitated her access—in particular Sir Barry Jackson, her friend for over 50 years and the founder of the Birmingham Repertory Company and the Malvern Festival.
Claire Cochrane is Professor Emeritus of Theatre Studies at the University of Worcester. She has published widely on the history and continuing policies of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and is a trustee of the Sir Barry Jackson Trust. As a historian of twentieth and twenty-first century British theatre with a particular interest in regional theatre, she is the author of Twentieth Century British Theatre: Industry, Art and Empire published by CUP in 2011. She is currently working on the co-edited two volume Routledge Companion to Twentieth Century British Theatre. Volume 1 1900-1950 was published in October last year.
Saturday 15th March 3:00pm Colwall Village Hall
Tickets £7 members/£10 non-members On the door
Refreshments
Further details: www.damelauraknightsociety.co.uk
Dame Laura Knight: An Artists Appreciation
In November 2020 the DLK society commissioned an on-line lecture by artist and senior lecturer Brian Gorst titled ‘An Artists Appreciation’. Brian was able to offer a unique insight and perception onto DKL’s work and methods.
Initially only available to members we have now openly released this onto YouTube which can be accessed: Here
Publication of our societies book titled: Laura Knight in The Malverns
OUR PUBLICATION ABOUT LAURA KNIGHT IN THE MALVERNS.
Heather Whatley’s book ‘Laura Knight in the Malverns’ is now well established on the bookshelves. Heather was the founder and is now the Vice Chair of the Dame Laura Knight Society.
Most biographies of Laura mention her stay in Malvern but none give detail of the three decades from 1931 until 1961 that she lived here. Drawing on recorded memories of local people the author hopes to bring to life the woman as well as the artist, a dynamic personality who engaged socially with all the locals she met, many of whom she painted.
Using Society archives, photos, maps and illustrations of Laura’s local paintings the writer traces Laura and Harold’s stay in Malvern from early Festival days, their permanent stay during World War 2, when Laura was a prolific War Artist, to their frequent returns to the town post war to see old friends and to continue painting.
Dame Laura Knight claimed she did her best landscapes in Malvern and her paintings of this period demonstrate her love of our countryside in all seasons and leave us with a colourful record of the lives of ordinary working people and our cultural history.
The book is published by Aspect Printers, costs £7.50 and is available in Malvern Tourist Information Centre, Co-operative Bookshop Malvern, Malvern Museum and on-line at Amazon.co.uk.
To read a review of the book please click here.