John Heffernan and Daniela Denby-Ashe.
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Drum Co-Production Wins National Theatre Award

The Drum Theatre Plymouth and touring theatre company Paines Plough were amongst the winners at this year’s Theatre Awards UK it was announced earlier this week.

Mike Bartlett’s play Love, Love, Love, commissioned and co-produced by the Drum Theatre and Paines Plough, picked up the award for Best New Play, beating Mogadishu, a Royal Exchange Manchester production and Herding Cats, a Theatre Royal Bath production.

Taking on the baby boomer generation as it retires, Love, Love, Love is one couple’s forty year journey from initial burst to full bloom. Premiering at the Drum Theatre last October, the production then toured around the country to great critical acclaim.

The Theatre Royal Plymouth has also helped other award winners – the Best Touring Production Award went to Propeller for their all-male versions of Richard III and The Comedy of Errors, brought to the stage with the help of The Touring Partnership. This is a group of large scale regional venues which commissions and produces quality productions to tour and is chaired by Theatre Royal Chief Executive Adrian Vinken.

New Adventures also won the Outstanding Achievement in Dance award for Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella, which launched and premiered at the Theatre Royal Plymouth last November.

The awards which are run by the Theatrical Management Association, were formerly known as the TMA awards, and seek to celebrate the best of regional theatre in the UK.

President of the Theatre Management Association, Rachel Tackley, said, “The Theatre Awards UK reflect a year of outstanding creativity and production excellence. British theatre is a shining light in the continuing recessionary gloom – something we can all be proud of. Congratulations to all the winners and the huge theatre community who collaborated in creating our wonderful productions.”

- by Simon Cole

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