The winners of the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland 2005-06 were announced on Sunday June 4, 2006 at Discovery Point, Dundee in a special ceremony sponsored by the City of Discovery Campaign.
Best Male Performance
Liam Brennan as Odon von Horvath in Tales from Hollywood by Christopher Hampton, directed by Ian Grieve – Perth Theatre.
“As the poet and Hollywood screenwriter Odon von Horvarth, Liam gave a typically understated performance. Rather than indulge in cheap theatrics, Brennan’s hangdog approach never slipped into cliche, but instead gave a brilliantly sustained portrayal of a vulnerable but never sentimental man given a close up view of a wild and crazy world.”
Best Female Performance
Cara Kelly as Molly Sweeney in Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel, directed by Gregory Thompson – The Citizens Theatre Company.
“In Brian Friel’s Molly Sweeney, directed by Gregory Thompson for the Citizens, Glasgow, Cara Kelly starred as a blind woman traumatised to the point of insanity when she is given some limited vision. It was a mesmerising performance, warm-hearted, generous and tragic.”
Best Ensemble
The cast of Roam, directed by Ben Harrison – Grid Iron/ National Theatre of Scotland.
“Staged at Edinburgh Airport, Grid Iron’s and National Theatre of Scotland’s Roam, contained a multi-national ensemble performance of both professionals and amateurs, which entranced, aroused and transported us into worlds of flight as they recreated its romance and frustration, or by it escaped to freedom or holidays.”
Best Director
Gregory Thompson for Molly Sweeney – The Citizens Theatre Company.
“If humanity is our business then there can have been be no finer place to go than to the Citizens? Circle Studio, where rising star director Gregory Thompson presented an utterly memorable and almost frighteningly profound production of Brian Friel’s great 1994 play Molly Sweeney.”
Best Design
Karen Tennent for Home: East Lothian, National Theatre of Scotland in partnership with The Brunton and East Lothian Council.
Best Music and Sound
Hugh Nankivell for Home: Shetland directed by Wils Wilson – National Theatre of Scotland in Partnership with the Shetland Islands Council.
“Hugh Nankivell’s poignant use of music and sound was beautifully attuned to Wils Wilson’s atmospheric production. The sound of Scottish fiddle music emanating from the chests of ghost-like work suits was as memorable as it was original.”
Best Technical Presentation
Roam, Grid Iron/ National Theatre of Scotland.
“Best technical presentation is a category that becomes more and more exciting each year as all the world becomes a stage. Winner, Roam by Grid Iron/National Theatre Scotland turned a logistical nightmare into a technical dream.”
Best Production for Children and Young People
Home: East Lothian, written and directed by Gill Robertson- National Theatre of Scotland in partnership with the Brunton and East Lothian Council.
“Home: East Lothian took a familiar fairy-tale – Hansel and Gretel – and quite literally turned it out-of-doors into a dank November woodland. The Result? Site-specific theatre that was state of the art make-believe, a brilliantly scarey adventure for children and their adults.”
Best New Play
Blackbird by David Harrower, directed by Peter Stein – Edinburgh International Festival.
“In Blackbird, David Harrower dared to bring the taboo subject of paedophilia to the stage – and contrived to do so in a manner which was at once meaningful, mature and challanging, but which refused to give an inch to those who thrive on moral panic and outrage. All four of the nominated plays looked at some aspect of the relationship between sex and power. Harrower not only did so most profoundly, addressing issues that our society is usually incapable of perceiving with anything apart from hysteria while maintaining a deeply moral stance, but he also gifted to his actors and their audiences a pair of characters of great depth and sophistication.”
Best Production
Roam, Grid Iron/ National Theatre of Scotland production.
“2006 has been a good year for theatre not in theatres and for the new Natonal Theatre of Scotland. So it’s not entirely surprising that the winning production combines those two. Roam was hugely ambitious in every sense – as a play not just an event in an unusual venue – and despite enormous difficulties, Grid Iron pulled it off. But they would not have been able to work on thsi scale without the support of the NTS. A good result all round.”
