Haydn Gwynne RIP

[Jan McNulty]

Desperately sad news that actor Haydn Gwynne has passed away at the age of 66:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-67172672

[Dawnstar]

I was shocked to read this earlier. For her to go from withdrawing from Old Friends, for at the time unspecified personal reasons, to dying in only a few weeks seems so fast. I saw her in The Great British Bake-Off musical only 7 months ago when she looked to be in great form so it must have come on very quickly.

[postie]

So strange for me to come home after a rehearsal and find this news.

 

I was at the dress for Like Water for Chocolate - side stall, from row - and there were 2 spare seats next to me before a young woman sat on the end of the row. At the interval, a tall woman appeared and asked if I minded if she sat down. I made a light-hearted comment about something to do with the first half and we got chatting. It was Hadyn. I don't know why I couldn't place her - pinned her down to either an actor or a BBC news-type, or perhaps a journalist with a profile. Lovely, warm engaging woman. A huge ballet fan, been coming forever. Mentioned bringing her boys when they were young (but they didn't take to it, at that age).

 

IIRC, there was a second interval and she went off, presumably to where the favoured people gather, but came back and we mused on the piece. She did then mention some of the most senior people - set designer (a hot topic!), movement, shapes of the story and character arcs, etc. I remember she had something to say about A Winter's Tale .. vaguely. Perhaps we talked about Scarlett, or was it McGregor ..

 

At the end, we chatted on the way down the stairs and I shook her hand outside, before she wandered off along Floral Street and I went to Holborn. Back to North West London, she said. She was coming back to see it again later in the season.

It was nice. Would have been awkward to ask her who she was.

 

As sometimes happens at rehearsals, it was just two fellow Friends sharing the experience of a new work. She was terrific company.

Edited October 20, 2023 by postie
paragraphs

[alison]

So very sad.  I loved her in Drop The Dead Donkey.

[AnticaFiamma]

Heartbreaking, saw her and loved her in a number of things, most notably The Threepenny Opera and the one-off Sondheim concert last year. She was a true class act

[Sim]

Such a pity.  I loved her as Camilla in The Windsors; she always made me laugh.  I also saw her in The Threepenny Opera in 2017 and although I loathed the production (and left at the interval) she was excellent in it.  

 

RIP to a class act.