The vital memorabilia and personal effects of our greatest playwrights should be secured in a reinvigorated national theatre collection, according to David Hare , who said too many were going into private hands. Hundreds of pieces from the playwright John Osborne’s collection are going up for auction on Wednesday evening, with the proceeds used to support the Avron Foundation, which bought his house after his death in 1994. His former home, the Hurst , is used today as a location for writing retreats and courses in Shropshire.
Fellow playwright Hare, who knew Osborne and has argued that plays such as Look Back in Anger “ [reconnected] the British theatre to its audience ”, said the V&A collection, which does have some Osborne memorabilia , should have secured many of the pieces in the sale. “[Avron] ensured the last years of his life – which were pretty much financial chaos – were saved,” said Hare. “But we’re back to the usual situation where the V&A supposedly has a theatrical collection, but doesn’t have anyone who is interested in buying the important memorial stuff of major writers.
” Hare added that the issue has persisted since the Theatre Museum in Covent Garden was closed in 2007, with its collection moving to the V&A. He said: “There was a theatrical museum for stuff like this in the centre of London, but the V&A, presumably for financial reasons, made the decision to retreat. “John did do something that no one else did in the theatre in the.
