|
Dateline:
6th June, 2005
CATS Winners Announced
On the 5th of June 2005 the Winners for the ten categories of The 2004
- 05 Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland were announced at the second
CATS celebration, supported by Stirling Council at The Tolbooth in Stirling,
and attended by members of the Scottish theatre community.
The 2004 - 2005 Winners are
For Best Male Performance
David Tennant for Jimmy Porter in Look Back In Anger by John
Osbourne - Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh production.
"David Tennant's performance swept us off our feet, electrifying
and mesmerising as he paced the stage like a caged animal. Whether
he was perching on furniture or strutting dictator-like, it was impossible
to take your eyes off him as he summoned up the hateful but irresistible
Jimmy Porter".
For Best Female Performance
Christine Entwisle for Laura in The Wonderful World Of Dissocia
by Anthony Neilson - Edinburgh International Festival / DrumTheatre,
Plymouth in association with the Tron Theatre, Glasgow.
"Christine Entwisle's performance was built from the ground up.
Full of technical precision and forensically observed detail, this
performance added a final layer of ringing emotional authenticity.
Not a second was wasted on stage from end to end of an exhausting
performance in which Entwisle was barely offstage at all for over
two hours". This performance was part of the play's world premiere
at the 2004 Edinburgh International Festival.
For Best Direction
Anthony Neilson for The Wonderful World of Dissocia - Edinburgh
International Festival /DrumTheatre, Plymouth in association with
the Tron, Glasgow production.
"Neilson's direction gave us a believable and liberating look
at life lived beyond sanity, one strikingly recognisable to anyone
who has gone there. His challenging way of working as director and
writer means his text is developing constantly during rehearsal. The
resulting theatrical truthfulness, exhilaration and insights fuelled
this production".
For Best Ensemble
Citizens' Theatre Ensemble Glasgow - Pete Ashmore, Julie Austin,
Candida Benson, Andrew Clarke, Lorna McDevitt and Vivien Reid for
A Little Bit of Ruff Season.
"True ensemble playing is rare in such cash-strapped times, but
here the Citizens, under the guiding hand of director/designer Kenny
Miller, achieved the heroic feat of producing five plays, with four
first time directors who also appeared in most of the works they weren't
overseeing. This compendium of modern classics not seen in this country
since the 60s, a post-modern classic that cried real tears, and a
brand new adaptation of a maverick literary masterpiece, were imbued
with style, panache, elegance, charm and deadly danger".
For Best New Play
Anthony Neilson for The Wonderful World of Dissocia - Edinburgh
International Festival /DrumTheatre, Plymouth in association with
the Tron, Glasgow production.
"Anthony Neilson's brilliant and troubling play was as much surreal
pantomime as high-minded drama. But behind the corny comedy and Alice
in Wonderland dreamscape was a subtle meditation on the nature
of mental illness. It started off funny and ended desperately, movingly
sad".
Although this play is not published yet other Neilson plays are published
by Methuen.
For Best Children's Show
Beauty And The Beast - Cumbernauld Theatre.
"Simon Sharkey took on Disney in more or less his own terms.
Every child knows Beauty and Beast from the Disney cartoon.
Simon challenged this by setting the story in the heart of a family,
returning both them and the tale to the book".
Beauty And The Beast was written by Simon Sharkey who also
directed it. He is shortly to take up an appointment at the National
Theatre of Scotland.
For Best Design
Miriam Buether for The Wonderful World of Dissocia - Edinburgh
International Festival /DrumTheatre, Plymouth in association with
the Tron, Glasgow production.
"Miriam Buether's design for The Wonderful World of Dissocia
was a perfectly realised wonderland, which turned so easily to nightmare
and from which there seemed never to be an escape. But escape it did.
Finessing the reality of a hospital ward in the play's brutally honest
second act in such a way that the fantastical characters all came
tumbling back into their true focus".
For Best Music
Philip Pinsky for Fierce - Grid Iron Production.
"Philip Pinsky's constantly inventive score played with sound
in a live set that took the audience from supermarket to suburb in
an expletive-laced onslaught of rap-based urban beats, driving the
story on with in-your-face ingenuity."
For Best Technical Presentation
Anna Karenina- Royal Lyceum Theatre.
The speed and precision with which one scene flowed seamlessly into
another was a crucial part of what made this production successful.
There was clearly a great team working hard together - as there always
needs to be.
For The Best Theatre Production
The Wonderful World of Dissocia - Edinburgh International
Festival /DrumTheatre, Plymouth in association with the Tron, Glasgow
production.
"It's extraordinary for one production to sweep the board so
comprehensively - but then it was an extraordinary production which
richly imagined an important subject, using all the power of the theatre.
It would be impossible to imagine this in another medium"
Speaking from the Scottish Theatre Festival in Florence, Neilson expressed
his delight at the success of the production. "In every town, on
every street," he said, "there are heroic men and women that
battle with their own minds on a day-to-day basis. They are heroes and
Dissocia is dedicated to them."
The ten 2004 - 05 Awards were presented by Vicky Featherstone (Director
of the National Theatre of Scotland) and John Bett, (the winner in 2003
- 04 of the CATS Best Actor).
|A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M|N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z|
News
Archive A-L
News Archive M-Z
Production News Archive
Please note that all three Archive
indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
|
