Noma Dumezweni has won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role for her performance in A Raisin In The Sun at the Lyric Hammersmith. Dumezweni played the part of Ruth Younger in David Lan’s revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s groundbreaking exploration of the African American experience. Reece Shearsmith, who joins the cast of The Producers in March, presented the award.
Born in Swaziland, of South African parents, Noma Dumenzweni came to England with her family as a child, living first in Suffolk, where she was educated, before moving to London. Her theatre credits include several seasons at Chichester Festival Theatre, appearing in The Coffee House, Nathan The Wise, The Master And Margarita, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. For the RSC, she has appeared in Much Ado About Nothing and Anthony And Cleopatra, while for the Young Vic she has starred in The Blacks, Skellig, and A Raisin In The Sun. Her one person show The Bogus Woman won the Fringe First and Manchester Evening News Awards.
Noma was almost as excited as the Billy Elliot boys about her win: "I’m standing in front of people I think are brilliant, looking out at them and going 'Oh my God I’m part of you now', I love that I love that!", she told us, one arm flung around award presenter and soon-to-be The Producers star Reece Shearsmith. Noma informed us that prior to her Laurence Olivier win, she had won a Manchester Evening News award, "and a cake when I was 10 years old." Hence she was particularly chuffed to come out on top at the most important awards ceremony in British theatre. But Noma was perhaps even more chuffed by the fact that her newly-acquired award sported the correct spelling of her name: "It’s got my name right! Seriously, it’s not Norma, it’s marvellous!" she said.
First opening in 1959, A Raisin In The Sun was the first play by a black American playwright to find success on Broadway. The play also made Hansberry the youngest person and the first African-American to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. The play tells the story of Walter Lee Younger who dreams of making his own way in life and owning a liquor store. Everything seems possible when his mother receives a $10,000 insurance windfall, but she had other plans…
David Lan’s revival of A Raisin In The Sun originally opened at the Young Vic in June 2001 before opening at the Lyric Hammersmith on 18 February 2005.
TB/CB
