Theatre News

Dundee’s Peer Nabs Four Scottish Theatre Awards

The Tony Awards weren’t the only theatre awards taking place last night (See Today’s Other News). In Glasgow, a ceremony was held to announce the winners of the sixth annual Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland.

Dundee Rep, the only permanent repertory company north of the border, scooped four prizes for its revival of Ibsen’s “famously unstageable” classic Peer Gynt: Best Male Performance (jointly awarded to Keith Fleming and Gerry Mulgrew who shared the title role), Best Design (Naomi Wilkinson), Best Director (Dominic Hill) and Best Production.

Peer Gynt was a co-production with the transient National Theatre of Scotland, which with two more wins for Six Characters in Search of an Author and The Emperor’s New Kilt, triumphed in six of the overall ten categories awarded in the prize-giving set up in 2003.

Elsewhere, Alan Wilkins’ Carthage Must Be Destroyed, premiered at the Traverse Theatre, won Best New Play, and Headlong’s revival of Tony Kushner’s two-part Aids-era epic Angels in America, which later transferred to London’s Lyric Hammersmith, was singled out for Best Technical Presentation, following its run at the co-producing Citizens’ Theatre in Glasgow.


The full shortlists – with winners denoted in bold – in this year’s sixth annual Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland, which the year from May 2007 to April 2008, are:

BEST MALE PERFORMANCE

  • Tam Dean Burn – Venus As A Boy, NTS Workshop and Burnt Goods
  • Sean Campion – Gregor in Carthage Must Be Destroyed, Traverse Theatre
  • Keith Fleming and Gerry Mulgrew – Peer Gynt in Peer Gynt, Dundee Rep/NTS
  • Michael Glenn Murphy – John in Shining City, Rapture Theatre

    BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE

  • Kirsty Bushell – Harper in Angels In America, Citizens’ Theatre/Headlong/Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith
  • Amy Manson – The Stepdaughter in Six Characters In Search Of An Author, Royal Lyceum Theatre/Citizens’ Theatre/NTS
  • Alison Peebles – Winnie in Happy Days, Dundee Rep
  • Sally Reid – Norma in The Wall, Borderline Theatre

    BEST DIRECTOR

  • James Brining – Sunshine On Leith, Dundee Rep
  • Andy Cannon and Iain Johnstone – The Emperor’s New Kilt, Wee Stories/NTS
  • Dominic Hill – Peer Gynt, Dundee Rep/NTS
  • Daniel Kramer – Angels In America, Citizens’ Theatre/Headlong/ Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith

    BEST ENSEMBLE

  • Peer Gynt – Dundee Rep/NTS
  • Sleeping Beauty – King’s Theatre, Glasgow
  • Sunshine on Leith – Dundee Rep
  • The Wall – Borderline Theatre

    BEST NEW PLAY

  • Being Norwegian – by David Greig, A Play, A Pie and A Pint/Paines Plough
  • Carthage Must Be Destroyed – by Alan Wilkins, Traverse Theatre
  • Educating Agnes – by Liz Lochhead, Theatre Babel
  • The Wall – by DC Jackson, Borderline Theatre

    BEST PRODUCTION FOR CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE

  • Cinderella – MacRobert, Stirling
  • The Emperor’s New Kilt – Wee Stories/NTS
  • Jack And The Beanstalk – Dundee Rep
  • The Wizard Of Oz – Royal Lyceum Theatre

    BEST DESIGN

  • Becky Minto – The Emperor’s New Kilt, Wee Stories/NTS
  • Soutra Gilmour, Charles Balfour and Mark Bouman – Angels in America, Citizens’ Theatre/Headlong/Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith
  • Naomi Wilkinson – Peer Gynt, Dundee Rep/NTS
  • Sans façon – Walden, Magnetic North at Stills Gallery

    BEST USE OF MUSIC & SOUND

  • Hilary Brooks – Sunshine On Leith, Dundee Rep
  • Paddy Cunneen – Peer Gynt, Dundee Rep/NTS
  • Alasdair Macrae – Subway, Vanishing Point
  • David Trouton – The Emperor’s New Kilt, Wee Stories/NTS

    BEST TECHNICAL PRESENTATION

  • Angels In America – Citizens’ Theatre/Headlong/Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith
  • The Bacchae – NTS/Edinburgh International Festival
  • Half Life – NVA/NTS at Kilmartin, Mid Argyll
  • Sunshine On Leith – Dundee Rep

    BEST PRODUCTION

  • Angels In America – Citizens’ Theatre/Headlong/Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith
  • The Emperor’s New Kilt – Wee Stories/NTS
  • Peer Gynt – Dundee Rep/NTS
  • Sunshine On Leith – Dundee Rep

    – by Terri Paddock