DAPHNE Levens, a prominent figure in local amateur theatre, has died aged 98.

She was born in London, the daughter of Hother and Etheldreda Hanschell.

Her father came from a Danish family who had settled in the Danish Virgin Islands. He was sent to school in England, and stayed on to train as a doctor against the wishes of his parents.

Her mother, whose family had emigrated to Vancouver, crossed Canada alone at the age of 18 to train as a nurse in London.

Following a convent education she went on to Somerville College in 1929, where she read history, marrying Robert Levens, a classics don at Merton College, in 1933.

The theatre was the dominant passion in Mrs Levens’s life. Although she began by acting in a number of plays with the university, she found that her main interest was directing.

She also discovered that among the many amateur groups in Oxford — Town rather than Gown — there was a pool of very gifted people, and it became her ambition to put on a production using the cream of all the societies’ best players.

The opportunity arose when she agreed to produce The Merry Wives of Windsor in Worcester College garden in 1955, for a conference of gynaecologists.

Following its success, it was agreed that further productions should follow, and the City of Oxford Theatre Guild came into being.

Every year for nearly 20 years, her Shakespeare productions in college gardens became a central part of her life and a popular feature of Oxford summers.

In addition, there were many other productions — over 70 in all — mainly with the Guild, occasionally with the university, and also with what was then Oxford Polytechnic.

She also regularly wrote theatre criticism for the Oxford Magazine, ran drama courses for the Women’s Institute at Denman College, gave tutorials in theatre studies for visiting American students, coached actors for drama school entrance, and became an adjudicator for British Drama League festivals.

In the 1970s, she also ran drama summer schools at Wesleyan University in the United States.

While always a keen theatregoer, the passions of her later years were mainly gardening, bridge and watercolour painting, at which she showed considerable talent.

Her mind was as active as ever and her enthusiasm for life remained undimmed.

Her son, Andrew, died in 1961 and she was widowed in 1976. She leaves two daughters, Karin and Tracy, seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

The funeral took place at Oxford Crematorium.