Patricia Ann Jellicoe OBE (15 July 1927 – 31 August 2017) was an English playwright, theatre director and actress.

Although her work covered many areas of theatre and film, she is best known for "pushing the envelope" of the stage play, devising new forms which challenge and delight unconventional audiences.

[1] Jellicoe was born in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire in England in 1927 and from childhood showed an interest and an aptitude for the theatre.

The play was subsequently staged by the Royal Court Theatre and directed by George Devine and Jellicoe.

Set in a Cockney neighbourhood of London, it combines realism, mysticism, music, dance, and ritual to create a powerful, feminist myth about modern civilisation.

In a space of about thirty pages, she devises a number of complex yet common-sense theories which account for the reasons why audiences react to stage and screen as they do.

In 1978, Jellicoe set up the Colway Theatre Trust to explore the concept of Community Plays: pioneering work which she continued to develop over the next ten years.

[5] Following list from Who's Who [1] Community Plays: Writer, Director & Producer: Community plays by other writers: director and/or producer including: Howard Barker, David Edgar, Charles Wood, John Downie, Sheila Yeger, Andrew Dickson, Arnold Wesker, David Cregan, Nick Darke, Peter Terson and Jon Oram National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview (C1316/04) with Ann Jellicoe in 2008 for its The Legacy of the English Stage Company held by the British Library.