Lynne Kirwin obituary
It did not surprise me that Lynne Kirwin became the doyenne of theatre publicists. At Kingsbury county grammar school in London, we auditioned for the same role in the school play, Anouilh’s Antigone, which she, more stage-struck than I, won. To celebrate we saw Paul Scofield’s thrilling Lear of 1962. Many years later, she fixed me an interview with Scofield’s Goneril – Irene Worth.
After graduating in English at Bedford College, London (now part of Royal Holloway, University of London), Lynne took a summer job with Frank Dunlop at the Young Vic, and was persuaded to stay. Later she became Jonathan Miller’s press officer at Kent Opera. Hired by Peter Hall at the National Theatre in 1978, Lynne had found her metier for life.
In 1982 she worked with Richard Eyre on his production of Guys and Dolls at the National. At the recent celebration of her life at the Donmar Warehouse, London, Eyre explained how her patience and diplomacy meant she dealt tactfully with the “high-strung hysterics” around her: “the delusions of grandeur of directors, the neediness of actors, the solipsism of writers”. She was wise, witty and trustworthy. David Hare praised her intelligent approach to new work. Ian McKellen admitted to having been a bit in love with her.
Lynne’s tinkling laughter accompanied anecdotes she could tell from hundreds of iconic productions – among them Amadeus, Waiting for Godot, The Dresser, Noises Off, Glengarry Glen Ross and The Iceman Cometh. A press conference she arranged for Dame Edna Everage turned into a hilarious diatribe by Edna against Barry Humphries. Between 1980 and 2020 she worked on productions at the National, the Young Vic and Hampstead theatre, and for Channel 4 and the BBC.
After her suburban schooldays as the only child of Gwen (nee Snooks) a bookkeeper, and William Kirwin, a railway clerk, she married Geoffrey Davies, a solicitor, in 1974. They lived, with cats, in a Georgian house in Tower Court, Covent Garden, at the centre of London’s theatreland. For 30 years they also restored a Dorset farm, keeping horses, raising lambs and calves. Lynne’s creation was a tranquil garden, which kept her energised despite the chronic autoimmune disease lupus, diagnosed when she was just 17. She later survived breast cancer, but succumbed finally to sepsis, aged 78.
Her diary records one of many theatre friendships she made: James Baldwin, whom she took under her wing during the 1987 revival of his play Amen Corner. She took him to Harrods to buy a duffel coat; he took her to visit Ava Gardner, and invited her to his house in France “now that I’ve found you”. She wrote that being with him “put my mind into top gear”. When she shared Baldwin’s box on the opening night of his play, months before he died, the ovation was tumultuous.
She is survived by Geoffrey.
