Rory Kinnear and Nancy Carroll have won Best Actor and Actress at this year’s Evening Standard Theatre Awards, which were presented last night in a ceremony at the Savoy Hotel.
Kinnear won for his performances in two Shakespeare productions, Measure For Measure at the Almeida theatre and Hamlet at the National Theatre, while Carroll’s winning performance was in another National Theatre production, After The Dance. Carroll received her award from Liam Neeson, the husband of the late actress Natasha Richardson, after whom the Best Actress award was renamed last year.
In total the National Theatre was honoured in four categories, with Howard Davies picking up Best Director for The White Guard – jointly with his Apollo theatre production of All My Sons – beating competition from fellow NT directors Laurie Sansom, Nicholas Hytner and Thea Sharrock.
Designer Miriam Buether won Best Design for her productions of Earthquakes In London at the National and Sucker Punch at the Royal Court, reflecting an evening which was dominated by both theatres.
The Royal Court also won for Clybourne Park, Bruce Norris’s satire on race and class, which beat two other Royal Court nominees to win Best Play. Clybourne Park is due to transfer to the West End in January. The award for Most Promising Playwright went to young playwright Anya Reiss, a product of the Royal Court’s Young Writer’s Programme, who wrote Spur Of The Moment when she was just 17.
However, the Outstanding Newcomer Award, which was dominated by Royal Court nominations, went to You Me Bum Bum Train, the interactive theatrical experience which was staged in East London by the Barbican theatre. Despite missing out in this category, Sucker Punch’s Daniel Kaluuya was awarded the new Editor’s Award, created this year due to the level of talent in the Outstanding Newcomer category.
Dominic Cooke, Artistic Director of the Royal Court, said the awards were “testament to the hard work and exceptional talent of all our winners and nominees. It’s very rewarding to see so many of our writers and actors from the last year recognised.” He added: “The Royal Court positions itself firmly on the cutting edge, working with extraordinary talent to create the landmark plays that define our age.”
Another subsidised theatre, the Donmar Warehouse, beat off commercial competition from Legally Blonde The Musical and the 25th anniversary production of Les Misérables to win Best Musical for its production of Sondheim’s Passion.
The ceremony, which was hosted by Stephen Fry at the newly reopened Savoy Hotel, also celebrated the talents of two greats in theatre, former RSC and National Theatre Artistic Director Sir Peter Hall and actor Michael Gambon, who received special awards for their contribution to theatre.
The Evening Standard Theatre Awards are the first in the London theatre awards season that will culminate in the most prestigious ceremony in the crown, the Laurence Olivier Awards, which take place on 13 March at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
CB