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Dateline: 30th January, 2008 The CC Awards - a Report Philip Fisher reports on the Critics' Circle Awards ceremony at the Prince of Wales Theatre on 29th January. Once again, the Chairman of the Critics' Circle Drama Section, the Daily Telegraph's Charles Spencer, welcomed a large audience to the Prince of Wales Theatre for this annual ceremony. Unusually, despite a very good theatre year with many strong contenders, the majority of the awards went to the most likely candidates. As soon as he had found his glasses - indeed, eventually, two pairs - Spencer welcomed the guests to what he described as "the most authoritative of all the British Theatre Awards." His brief resumé of the theatre year was generally positive, but like several speakers, he felt the need to comment on the impending cuts in the funding of the subsidised theatre by the Arts Council. While emphasising that the Circle had no official view, he described some of the choices as "mind-bogglingly stupid", particularly singling out the cuts announced for The Bush, The Orange Tree, The Northcott in Exeter and The Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford. Following a speech from Paul Taiano on behalf of sponsors, Nyman Libson Paul, the incendiary wit of Arthur Smith (not Aerosmith) was turned on the critics who insist on inviting him back to insult them year after year. He was on top form attacking, amongst others, Melvyn Bragg, Nick Hytner and Sir Trevor Nunn. To balance this off, he paid a touching tribute to the late Ned Sherrin, whom he described as "one of the great noms de Théâtre". As always, he entertained with a stream of highly funny if often filthy, or in his own term "off-colour", jokes. The first award of the day was presented by the man described by Charles Spencer as "the waspish boulevardier with the secret heart of gold", the Evening Standard's Nicholas de Jongh. He also launched a bitter attack on the very existence of the Arts Council and made a plaintive appeal for a proper drama panel to be appointed immediately. In presenting the best actress award to Anne-Marie Duff for her performance as St Joan at the National, he described it as perhaps one of the six greatest performances that he had seen during his career, comparing her capacity to "change our awareness of a character and a play " to similar abilities shown by Dame Peggy Ashcroft. The recipient, accompanied to the event by heartthrob film star James McAvoy, seemed genuinely surprised and touched by her recognition. Unusually, the John and Wendy Trewin Award for the Best Shakespearean Performance was shared, first by Chiwetel Ejiofor for his Othello at the Donmar opposite the higher profile Ewan McGregor. John Peter of the Sunday Times described this as "the most profound and greatest performance" of this part since Olivier's in 1964. The other winner, Patrick Stewart, has had a good year and it was his Macbeth (of which more very soon) that allowed him to share the award. He gave perhaps the best thank you speech of the day, paying homage to critics and the theatre in the widest sense and making it very clear what pleasure he has derived from his decades on stage. He was clearly delighted to have teamed up with Rupert Goold in what Michael Billington, presenting the award to that "phenomenally talented" gentleman as Best Director, described as a landmark production comparable with Peter Brook's Midsummer Night's Dream. Billington, who might be better placed than anybody to do so, then launched a vehement attack on "the deluded desk wallahs at the Arts Council". Metro's Claire Allfree enthusiastically commended the most promising playwright, 21-year-old Polly Stenham who has already won the Evening Standard equivalent to this award for That Face. The Drama Section's Secretary, Ian Shuttleworth, in his other guise as critic for both the Financial Times and Theatre Record gave an exceptionally funny speech before presenting the Best Newcomer Award to Leanne Jones for Hairspray. Rarely has a truer word been spoken than when on accepting it, she delightedly announced that "dreams really can come true". The theme continued with Paul Taylor's speech remembering the late Peter Hepple and presenting the award for Best Musical named after him to Hairspray about which he spoke wittily, at one point describing his pleasure in seeing what happened after Tracy Turnblad achieved "the equivalent of winning the X Factor and reversing global warming". In addition to echoing Shuttleworth's comments about Leanne Jones, he also admired the "magnificent" Michael Ball and finished by saying "this is a show with such a lift that you think your spirits have turned into a helium balloon". In between the mist of Hairspray, Dominic Cavendish was allowed to announce that War Horse, in the persons of Rae Smith together with the Handspring Puppet Company from South Africa, had won Best Design. In presenting the Best New Play prize to Complicite for A Disappearing Number, Benedict Nightingale from The Times happily admitted an ignorance of maths that in no way prevented him from enjoying yet another trip through Simon McBurney's unique mind. Last but not least, Georgina Brown from the Mail on Sunday not only got to gush about the best actor, Charles Dance for his outstanding performance as C. S. Lewis in Shadowlands "perfectly judged in every tiny detail" but even enjoyed a kiss from the heartthrob himself. Modestly, Dance merely stated, "I have a terrific part in a wonderful production of a great play" leaving it to others to eulogise what Ms Brown, echoing the review on BTG, described as "the performance of his career". Apparently, this year's awards made it on to BBC News, which could prove embarrassing for your critic who was apparently spotted looking rather like a man in a suit who should have been elsewhere. After overrunning by more than 30 minutes, he certainly should.
Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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