The newly re-branded 2015 Wales Theatre Awards (formerly the Theatre Critics of Wales Awards) took place on 31 January, at Sherman Cymru, a lively ceremony, amusingly co-hosted by bantering Welsh media veterans Arfon Haines-Davies and Nicola Heywood-Thomas.
The cross-disciplinary nature of the event was illustrated by the choice of an extract from a soon-to-open piece by the Harnisch-Lacey Dance company as the curtain-raiser, while two recipients of the Bryn Terfel scholarship gave a moving rendition of the famous duet from Bizet’s The Pearl-Fishers to kick off the second half.
In several categories, dance, opera and theatre competed on equal terms, thus Michael McCarthy won Best Director for Music Theatre Wales’s production of Philip Glass and Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of Kafka’s The Trial.
And smaller companies frequently bested their more high-profile rivals—notably Best English Language production, won by Buddug James Jones for her autobiographical Hiraeth.
The big winners, though, with four awards each, were Welsh National Opera and the Caernarfon-based Theatr Bara Caws, for Sion Eirian’s 1980s-set, politically-inflected family drama Garw.
The Special Achievement Award went to Clwyd Theatre Cymru, marking not only their production of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood, which played to record audiences, but also the imminent retirement of long-serving Artistic Director Terry Hands.
Mike Smith, director of Arts Awards Ltd who organised the event, took the opportunity to launch the Critics Fund, designed to allow young writers to travel across the country to see and review productions which they would otherwise be unable to access.
The shortlist having been derived from 650 individual nominations made by 35 critics, the success of these awards indicates that, even at a time of financial uncertainty, there is considerable strength in depth across all theatrical disciplines throughout this small nation.
The complete list of nominees is available at the Wales Theatre Awards website (http://www.walestheatreawards.com).
The Winners:
Best Show for Children and Young People
Maudie’s Rooms – Roar Ensemble/Sherman Cymru
Best Sound and/or Lighting
Contractions – Dyfan Jones & Nick Beadle/Iain Goosey Productions
Best Design and/or Costume
Mametz – Jon Bausor & Lucy Martin/National Theatre Wales
Best Male in an Opera Production
John Tomlinson – Moses und Aron/Welsh National Opera
Best Female in an Opera Production
Sarah Tynan – Boulevard Solitude/Welsh National Opera
Best Opera Production
Moses und Aron – Welsh National Opera
Best Playwright in the English Language
Matthew Bulgo – Last Christmas/Dirty Protest
Best Playwright in the Welsh Language
Siôn Eirian – Garw/Theatr Bara Caws
Best Dance Production
Caitlin – Light, Ladd & Emberton
Best Director
Michael McCarthy – The Trial/Music Theatre Wales
Best Female Performance in the English Language
Sara Lloyd-Gregory – Contractions/Iain Goosey Productions
Best Male Performance in the English Language
Daniel Llewelyn Williams – Not About Heroes/Clwyd Theatr Cymru
Best Female Performance in the Welsh Language
Eiry Thomas – Garw/Theatr Bara Caws
Best Male Performance in the Welsh Language
Rhys Parry Jones – Garw/Theatr Bara Caws
Best Production in the Welsh Language
Garw – Theatr Bara Caws
Best Production in the English Language
Hiraeth – Buddug James Jones
Best Ensemble
WNO Chorus – Moses und Aron/Welsh National Opera
Special Achievement
Clwyd Theatr Cymru