Audrey Cruddas was an English costume and scene designer, painter and potter. Born in Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

 she moved to England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 with her parents when she was an infant. After leaving school she studied art at St. John's Wood School of Art, Royal Academy Schools and Bram Shaw School of Drawing and Painting. During the war she worked as a 'Land Girl' in the Women's Land Army. At the end of the conflict she began to design costumes for the theatre and was quickly talent spotted by the dancer and actor Sir Robert Helpmann. Cruddas soon became one of the leading modern theatre designers of the post war period.

Her first commission was designing costumes for The White Devil

The White Devil

The White Devil is a revenge tragedy from 1612 by English playwright John Webster . A notorious failure when it premiered, Webster complained the play was acted in the dead of winter before an unreceptive audience. The play's complexity, sophistication and satire made it a poor fit with the...

at the Duchess Theatre

Duchess Theatre

The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street, near Aldwych.The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest 'proscenium arched' West End theatres. It has 479 seats on two levels....

, London (1947). This production starred her friend and mentor Robert Helpmann. Other early career highlights were for John Burrell’s 1947 Old Vic

Old Vic

The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...

 production of Taming of the Shrew and Verdi’s, Aida

Aida

Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...

 at Convent Garden (1948). Notable later productions include Michael Benthall

Michael Benthall

Michael Pickersgill Benthall was an English theatre director.As an undergraduate at Oxford University, Michael Benthall met Robert Helpmann, who had been fulfilling an invitation to dance at there...

’s Old Vic

Old Vic

The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...

 productions of Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

(1955), Cymbeline

Cymbeline

Cymbeline , also known as Cymbeline, King of Britain or The Tragedy of Cymbeline, is a play by William Shakespeare, based on legends concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance...

(1957), and Hamlet

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

(1958), and Peter Potter’s Edinburgh Festival

Edinburgh Festival

The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...

 production of ‘The Wallace’ (1960).

In 1952 Cruddas illustrated a Folio Society

Folio Society

The Folio Society is a book club based in London that produces new editions of classic books. Their books are notable for their high quality bindings and original illustrations...

 edition of William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

’s, The Tragedy of Anthony & Cleopatra (the forward of this edition was written by her friend, Laurence Olivier

Laurence Olivier

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...

) and the book was republished again in 1963. Although best known for her theatre work she was an accomplished artist in different mediums – painting, drawing and ceramics.

In the early 1950s she moved to the Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

 village of Great Bardfield

Great Bardfield

Great Bardfield is a large village in Essex, England.The Great Lodge at Bardfield is a Grade II listed building, which built in the 16th century and was given to Anne of Cleves by Henry VIII as one of several properties as part of a generous settlement for an amicable divorce. The grounds include...

. At Bardfield she became involved with the dynamic art community which included: John Aldridge

John Aldridge

John William Aldridge is a former Republic of Ireland international footballer and football manager...

, Edward Bawden

Edward Bawden

Edward Bawden, CBE, RA was a British painter, illustrator and graphic artist. He was also famous for his prints, book covers, posters, and garden metalwork furniture...

, George Chapman

George Chapman

George Chapman was an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a classical scholar, and his work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been identified as the Rival Poet of Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Minto, and as an anticipator of the Metaphysical Poets...

, Stanley Clifford-Smith

Stanley Clifford-Smith

Stanley Clifford-Smith was an English Expressionist painter and textile designer who was active as an artist in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.-Early life:...

, Joan Glass

Joan Glass

Elizabeth Joan Glass , was an English textile designer and painter.-Youth:Glass was born in Orpington, Kent. She was the oldest of three daughters born to John Pomeroy Glass and Edith Mary Muirhead. Her father, was a senior partner and later chairman of James Templeton & Co, then one of the leading...

, Walter Hoyle, Sheila Robinson, Michael Rothenstein

Michael Rothenstein

William Michael Rothenstein RA was an English printmaker, painter and art teacher.-Early life:Born in Hampstead, London, on 19 March 1908, he was the youngest of four children born to the celebrated artist, Sir William Rothenstein and his wife, Alice Knewstub.-Art:He was home schooled and studied...

, Marianne Straub

Marianne Straub

Marianne Straub was one of the leading designers of textiles in Britain during the 1940s, 50s and 60s.She was born in the village of Amriswil, Switzerland on 23 September 1909. Her father was a textile merchant so it was no surprise that she was soon attracted to a career in textiles. She studied...

, among others.

Cruddas lived in Walton House, Great Bardfield (next door to Edward Bawden’s Brick House) during most of the 1950s and she was an important member of the art community that lived in the Essex village. In the 1960s she moved to Bank House, Botesdale

Botesdale

Botesdale is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. The village is about south west of Diss.Botesdale is located about 25 miles from Norwich and 16 miles from Bury St Edmunds.- Road :...

, Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

.

Her work is in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum

Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...

 (London) and the Fry Art Gallery

Fry Art Gallery

The Fry Art Gallery is an art gallery located in Saffron Walden, Essex, England. In its present form the gallery was established in 1985 and it is managed by the Fry Art Gallery Society...

(Saffron Walden).