Annie Horniman

Annie Horniman was a local celebrity, occultist and pioneer of the British repertory theatre movement. She leased the Midlands hotel as a 1000-seat theatre company for a trial season in the early 1900s. Following great success, she used £25,000 of her family’s packet tea forture to purchase Manchester’s Gaiety Theatre in 1908, with the intent of bringing classics and new locally written plays to the working-class audience. Horiman is noted for her celebrity status, extrovert behaviour, eccentric style of dress, heavy smoking and interest in astrology. She was a member of an occult group called the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and was noted for her daily use of tarot card readings. She embraced her love for the theatre, despite the disapproval of her wealthy family and actively shunned restrictive Victorian values.

Voice Acting by Roisin O'Callaghan Written & Produced by Ellie Andrews