Dominic Cooke tonight beat Sam Buntrock and Joe Mantello to win the Best Director 2007 Laurence Olivier Award for his direction of The Crucible.
"I’m overwhelmed," Cooke told officiallondontheatre afterwards. Speaking about The Crucible he said: "It was an absolute pleasure, it wasn’t a hard job to do at all.
Once of the things that was hard was that I went off to New England to do some research, I did a lot of research, I really did. We just started going for it. I've heard other actors say this, that actors just love working on that play, they can draw something out of it."
Cooke is currently in his first season as Artistic Director at the Royal Court, where he was previously Associate Director from 1999-2002. Prior to his appointment he was Associate Director at the Royal Shakespeare Company where he was in charge of the company’s annual New Works Festival. His other directing credits include The People Are Friendly, Fireface and Plasticine for the Royal Court, Arabian Nights at the Young Vic, Macbeth, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale and The Malcontent for the RSC and By The Bog Of Cats starring Holly Hunter at the Wyndham’s.
The RSC production of Arthur Miller’s 1953 play opened at the Gielgud in April 2006 after a successful run in Stratford. The play is based on the Salem witch hunts of the 1690s and was written by Miller as his response to McCarthyism in 1950s America. It tells the story of John Proctor, a farmer in Salem who makes the fatal mistake of spurning his young lover Abigail. She takes revenge by crying witchcraft on all and sundry, and as things spiral out of control, Proctor finds himself fighting to save his good name, at the expense of his life.
Iain Glen, who played Proctor, earlier tonight missed out on the Best Actor award to Rock ‘N’ Roll’s Rufus Sewell. The Crucible is also nominated in the category of Best Revival.
CB
