• The Signalman picks up Best Male Performance (Tom McGovern), Best New Play (Peter Arnott) and Best Production awards and is nominated in Best Director (Ken Alexander)
• Arnott throws proverbial “cat among the pigeons” calling for radical rethink of how culture is owned and organised in a post-Covid landscape.
• Best Director award won by Elizabeth Newman of Pitlochry Festival Theatre
• Two awards each for Atlantis Banal: Beneath the Surface, Solaris and Thank You Very Much
• 2020 awards celebrate the creativity of Scottish theatre while applauding its resilience

A solo companion piece to Peter Arnott’s 2019 play Tay Bridge is the big winner in the 2020 Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland it was revealed today, 12 November 2020. Written by Arnott from an original idea by actor Tom McGovern, the production was presented by A Play, a Pie and a Pint at Òran Mór. Both the playwright and actor are recognised, and The Signalman also picks up the supreme award, Best Production. Meanwhile, Ken Alexander received a nomination in the Best Director category.

Peter Arnott says he is thrilled by the success of The Signalman and the praise for Tom Govern:

“I’m delighted about the award. I’m especially pleased for Tom. It was conversations with him back when we did The Cone Gatherers that led ultimately to both this play, and to Tay Bridge, its companion piece for Dundee Rep.”

He goes on to callfor a radical rethink about how arts and culture are organised in a post Covid-19 landscape.

“It does feel like that conversation and that theatre-making took place on a different planet. I think we’re in much deeper trouble than we know and that Covid is just the start of it. And I have the uneasy feeling that people are acting as if someone is just going to throw a switch to put all the lights back on, and as if we can just pick up where we left off. I don’t know anything for certain, but I do know that it’s not going to be like that.”

“I think we are going to have to think some pretty radical thoughts about how we organise what it is we do for a living if any of us expect to do anything like it again. I’m talking about upending the entire structure of governance we inherited from the reinvention of culture at the end of World War ll… and reinventing it all over again.”

He calls for the establishment ofregional hubs, direct public ownership, a ministry of the arts, elected local and regional boards, “if we hope that in ten years to have the prosperous and successful industry that our talent and our audiences deserve.”

The 2020 CATS are announced at a time when performing in front of a live audience is virtually impossible, but also a time when Scottish theatre has kept the art form alive through virtual performances and innovative public interventions.

“This is a tremendously difficult time for everyone in theatre, both for those running our theatres, and for the huge rage of freelance workers – from actor and writers to designers and musicians – who create much of what we see on stage.  And paradoxically, the theatres who had been most successful in building up ticket sales, and other earned income from audiences, have been the ones who have suffered most severely, as those income streams collapsed to zero, from one week to the next,” says Joyce McMillan, CATS co-convenor.

“Yet for all the difficulties, the CATS judges remained aware of the tremendous year of work, in 2019–2020, that was just coming to an end when the theatres closed down in March; and once we realised that there was no hope of holding a live judging meeting, far less a summer CATS awards celebration and party on the usual scale, we decided to work online to agree our short list and winners for the year; and then to make an announcement, so as to give richly deserved recognition to the theatre-makers in Scotland who were producing such wonderful work, before Covid intervened.”

“There will be no online awards ceremony, because we love the live experience, and will celebrate this work at a live ceremony and party just as soon as that is possible. In the meantime, though, we hope the celebration of these wonderful shows from 2019–20 will remind us of the sheer richness of Scotland’s theatre scene, of what we stand to lose if we don’t support our theatre-makers through this crisis, and of how much there is to look forward to, when our wonderful theatres are finally able to open their doors again.” 

Elsewhere, the Best Director Award goes to the artistic director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Elizabeth Newman, forFaith Healer. ActorGeorge Costiganwas nominated for the Best Male Performance award in the role of Francis Hardy in the production, and Faith Healer also picked up a Best Female Performance nomination for Kirsty Stuart and made the shortlist for Best Production. Stuart, meanwhile, got a second nomination for Best Female Performance for her role as the Duchess in The Duchess (of Malfi) for theRoyal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh and Citizens Theatre. This is the first time that an actor has received nominations in the same category for two different performances.

“It was a real honour and privilege to direct Brian Friel’s Faith Healer with such a brilliant creative team and the most extraordinary group of talented actors,” says Elizabeth Newman. “The piece meant so much to us all, not least George (Costigan) who suggested we make the play together several years ago. The entire team at Pitlochry Festival Theatre worked so hard to make this production such a wonderful experience for everyone involved.”

“I had been thinking about what we could do next in these strange times, so needless to say, it was an important moment to receive the recognition of this award. And more than anything it just told me: just keep going. Thank you to everyone at CATS, the brilliant artists, theatre teams and, of course, audiences who continue to stick with us during this time,” she adds.

Shona Reppe’s Atlantis Banal: Beneath the Surface (created with Vélo Théâtre, France andproduced by Catherine Wheels) picks up two awards: Best Production for Children and Young people and Best Design, an award given jointly for the first time. The other joint winner of the Best Design Award isSolaris(Royal Lyceum Edinburgh, the Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne and the Lyric Hammersmith)which also scooped Best Technical Award. Reppe dedicated her awards to theatre-makers everywhere who are battling to survive in these challenging times.

“It’s an honour and a delight to have Atlantis Banal: Beneath the Surface recognised in such an amazing way,” says Shona Reppe. “These awards are dedicated to theatre makers everywhere. Keep your heads above water chums – keep doggy paddling through this COVID tsunami and I’ll see you on the shore as soon as possible. I’m the one in the flowery cap clinging to a rock.”

Another production that garners two awards – Best Ensemble and Best Music and Sound – is the National Theatre of Scotland’s Thank You Very Much. TheBest Female Performance Award is wonby Anna Russell-Martin for Anais Hendricks in The Panopticon, a National Theatre of Scotland production staged at Edinburgh’s Traverse.

“From small-scale solo shows to major international co-productions, Scottish theatre punches above its weight,” says CATS co-convenor Mark Fisher. “On every level, theatre-makers made the job of the CATS judges a pleasure and delight, making the current closure of the theatres all the more poignant. We can’t wait to see such great talents back on stage where they belong.”

For further information, interviews and images contact:

Lesley Booth, 0779 941 4474 / lesley@newcenturypr.com

Notes for Editors

• The 2020 CATS were generously supported by: STV (Best Female Performance), Equity (Best Ensemble), Scottish Drama Training Network (Best Music and Sound), BECTU (Best Technical Presentation) Nick Hern Books (Best New Play), and also by the Mackintosh Foundation, BBC Scotland Radio Drama and The List.

• The CATS judging panel for 2020 comprised Mary Brennan (The Herald), Anna Burnside (Daily Record), Neil Cooper (The Herald), Michael Cox (Across the Arts), Thom Dibdin (The Stage and AllEdinburghTheatre.com), Mark Fisher (The Guardian), Joyce McMillan (The Scotsman) and David Pollock (freelance arts journalist).

• Traverse Theatre’s Ulster American triumphs
• Perth Theatre’s Lost at Sea scoops two awards
• John Michie picks up Best Male Performance award
• Red Bridge wins Best Production for Children and Young people for third year running
• CATS celebrates theatre giant Giles Havergal’s 81st birthday

The Traverse Theatre’s production Ulster American has triumphed at the 2019 Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland, picking up Best Female Performance (Lucianne McEvoy) Best New Play (David Ireland), and the supreme award, Best Production. The awards were presented today, 9 June 2019, at Glasgow’s Tramway.

“We live in an age of old and unprintable hatreds that suddenly spring back to life; and if there is a playwright born for that moment, it’s David Ireland,” says Joyce McMillan co-convenor of CATS. “In Ulster American he whips up a tragi-comic storm of razor-sharp, taboo-busting dialogue that spirals shockingly towards violence; and Gareth Nicholls’s superb, fast-moving Traverse production combined with three terrific performances from Lucianne McEvoy, Robert Jack and Darrell D’Silva to create one of last year’s huge smash hits.”

Perth Theatre’s production of Lost at Sea, Morna Young’s play inspired by the loss of her father at sea when she was a child, picked up two awards, Best Director (Ian Brown) and Best Ensemble.

“Morna Young’s Lost at Sea is a requiem to the fishermen of the North-East who perished in the waves. Almost operatic in construction, the voices of the ensemble, individually and as a chorus, create an unforgettable portrait of the hardships and heartbreak faced by the fishing community.”

Joy Watters, Across the Arts

Meanwhile, the Best Male Performance award went to Holby City/Taggart star John Michie for his memorable performance as the senior fire officer suffering from severe post-traumatic stress after the first fire at the Glasgow School of Art in Rob Drummond’s The Mack (A Play, a Pie and a Pint at Oran Mor, presented in association with the Traverse Theatre).

“John Michie played the role of the traumatised fire commander with a heart-wrenching dignity and subtlety. His performance conveyed with reverberative power the emotional reckoning of a stoical, west of Scotland man who, following the first fire at the Glasgow School of Art, is finally brought down by a career’s worth of trauma.”

Mark Brown – The Herald on Sunday, the Sunday National and the Daily Telegraph

Red Bridge Arts, the North Queensferry-based company, scooped the Best Production for Children and Young People award for the third year in a row, this year for Stick by Me co-produced with Andy Manley and Ian Cameron.

The awards were presented by one of the giants of Scottish Theatre, Giles Havergal, whose 81^st birthday the CATS also celebrated at the event.

Elsewhere in the awards Best Design was won by Shona Reppe, Ailsa Paterson, Selene Cochrane and Chris Edser for Baba Yaga, the international co-production between Imaginate (Edinburgh) and Windmill Theatre Company (Adelaide, Australia). The Best Technical award was picked up by The End of Eddy, the Untitled Projects and Unicorn Theatre co-production, and Best Use of Music and Sound went to Birds of Paradise and the National Theatre of Scotland for My Left Right Foot – The Musical.

Full list of winners

“This has been another bumper year for theatre produced in Scotland,” says CATS co-convenor Mark Fisher. “This was reflected in the large number of productions that were eligible for the awards and in the spread of winners between so many different companies.”

“It was tremendous to welcome Giles Havergal as our guest presenter,” he adds. “Giles made an unrivalled contribution to Scottish theatre in his over 30 years at the helm of the Citizens, which helped lay the foundations for so much of the work produced in Scotland today.”

The 2019 CATS were generously supported by: STV (Best Female Performance), Equity (Best Ensemble), Scottish Drama Training Network (Best Director), BECTU (Best Technical Presentation),Young Scot (Best Production for Children and Young People), and also by the Mackintosh Foundation, BBC Scotland Radio Drama and The List.

Ends

Notes for Editors

The CATS judging panel for 2019 comprised Mary Brennan (The Herald), Mark Brown (Herald on Sunday/Sunday National and The Daily Telegraph), Anna Burnside (Daily Record), Paul F Cockburn (BroadwayBaby), Neil Cooper (The Herald), Michael Cox (Across the Arts), Thom Dibdin (The Stage and AllEdinburghTheatre.com), Mark Fisher (The Guardian), Joyce McMillan (The Scotsman), David Pollock (The Independent), Allan Radcliffe (The Times), Amy Taylor (The Skinny) and Joy Watters (Across the Arts).

Friday 10 May 2019

For further information, interviews and images contact: Lesley Booth, 0779 941 4474 / lesley@newcenturypr.com

• Birds of Paradise/National Theatre of Scotland production My Left Right Foot – The Musical tops the shortlists
• The Traverse theatre scoops 11 nominations across four different productions
• Five nominations for Ballyturk (Tron Theatre). Four nominations for Lost At Sea (Perth Theatre)
• Jessica Hardwick, Cora Bissett, Irene Macdougall and Lucianne McEvoy shortlisted for Best Female Performance
• John Michie, Grant O’Rourke, Lorn Macdonald and Darrell D’Silva shortlisted for Best Male Performance
• 2019 CATS will be presented at Tramway on Sunday 9 June

A company that initially had its three-year funding withdrawn by Creative Scotland last year, sparking a public outcry, has seen one of its productions top the shortlists for the annual Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland. Birds of Paradise, Scotland’s only professional, disability-led arts organisation, is shortlisted in no fewer than six award categories for My Left Right Foot – The Musical including Best Ensemble, Best Director for Robert Softley Gale, and Best Production. The show, which was co-produced by The National Theatre of Scotland, is a satirical response to the controversial, Oscar -winning film based on the life of Christy Brown. It has just had its international premiere at the World Theatre Festival in Japan and will be staged at the Brighton International Festival next week and in Dundee from 21 – 25 May.

“The initial decision to cut regular funding for Birds of Paradise seemed out of tune with Creative Scotland’s commitment to supporting arts that are by and for everyone,” says Joyce McMillan, co-convenor of The Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland. “Theatre should be inclusive, and this great show demonstrates how Birds of Paradise have become a vital part of Scotland’s theatre scene over the last 25 years, creating award-winning work in which artists with disability and without can work together to produce world-class, thought-provoking entertainment, for audiences everywhere.”

“Not only did Robert Softley Gale’s take on the controversial Oscar-winning film My Left Foot stand up for disabled people’s right to be heard, but it did it in a brilliantly humorous and theatrical way, in one of the finest productions of the year.”

“We are so incredibly thrilled to receive these six CATS nominations for My Left Right Foot – The Musical,” says Robert Softley Gale, Artistic Director of Birds of Paradise. “We created the show in co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland to mark our 25th anniversary year. Making a large-scale musical takes so many talented artists working together and it’s a fantastic testament to them that we’ve received this recognition. It wasn’t so long ago that work by disabled artists was seen as being on the fringes, but now – in 2019 – we can finally have the confidence to say we’re a core part of the arts in Scotland. A huge thanks to the CATS panel for their part in making that so.”

Edinburgh’s Traverse theatre scooped 11 nominations across four different productions – Ulster American, Mouthpiece, What Girls Are Made Of and The Mack. Meanwhile, Glasgow’s Tron Theatre received five nominations for Ballyturk and Perth Theatre at Horsecross received four nominations for Lost at Sea.

Holby City star John Michie is nominated for Best Male Performance for his role as The Fireman in The Mack, Rob Drummond’s response (for the Glasgow lunchtime theatre A Play, a Pie and a Pint and the Traverse) to the fires at The Glasgow School of Art. Also nominated are Lorn Macdonald (Declan in Mouthpiece – The Traverse Theatre Company), Darrell D’Silva (Jay Conway in Ulster American – The Traverse Theatre Company) and Outlander actor (and 2015 CATS winner) Grant O’Rourke (Two in Ballyturk – Tron Theatre Company).

Jessica Hardwick, who won the 2018 CATS Best Female Performance award for Knives in Hens, is nominated again, this year for her role as Roxane in the National Theatre of Scotland/Citizens Theatre/Royal Lyceum Edinburgh production of Cyrano de Bergerac. Also shortlisted are Cora Bissett (Cora in What Girls Are Made Of – Traverse Theatre Company), Irene Macdougall (Kate Keller in All My Sons, Dundee Rep Ensemble) and Lucianne McEvoy (Ruth Davenport in Ulster American, Traverse Theatre Company).

Red Bridge Arts (who won the 2018 CATS Award for Best Production for Children and Young People with Andy Cannon for Space Ape) makethe shortlist again this yearwithStick By Me, a piece co–created with Andy Manley and Ian Cameron. The shortlist also includes Baba Yaga (a collaboration between Edinburgh’s Imaginate and Windmill Theatre Company from Adelaide), The End of Eddy (an Untitled Projects co-production with London’s Unicorn Theatre)andNests (a collaboration between Frozen Charlotte and Stadium Rock).

Scotland continues to be a vibrant home for new writing with over 80 new plays eligible for the 2019 CATS. The shortlists see a fourth nomination for two-time CATS winner Kieran Hurley (Mouthpiece), and first-time nominations in the playwright category for David Ireland (Ulster American) and Robert Softley Gale (My Left Right Foot – The Musical). Shona Reppe picks up a second playwright nomination, this time for a piece co-created with Christine Johnston and Rosemary Myers (Baba Yaga)

For full lists of nominations across the ten award categories see Notes for Editors.

Collaboration continued to characterise theatre produced in Scotland in 2018-9. The nominated productions not only brought together Scottish companies and practitioners, but also include UK-wide and international collaborations including Untitled Projects with London’s Unicorn Theatre and Imaginate with Windmill Theatre Company from Adelaide, Australia

“In these divisive times, it’s heartening to see theatre companies reaching beyond Scotland to make cultural connections with the rest of the world,” says Mark Fisher, co-convenor of the CATS. “In previous years, we have celebrated collaborations with companies from Istanbul, Minneapolis, Naples, Norway, Singapore, Tianjin and elsewhere. Let’s hope such artistic cross-pollination continues to enrich theatre at home and abroad.”

The 2019 CATS will be presented at Tramway on Sunday 9 June. Tickets priced £16.50 (£11 for Young Scot card holders). Transaction free of £1.50 for online and £1.75 for telephone bookings. Book in person at. 25 Albert Drive, Glasgow G41, by telephone on 0845 330 3501 and online via https://tickets.glasgowconcerthalls.com/

For more information on the CATS visit: https://criticsawards.theatrescotland.com

The 2019 CATS were generously supported by: STV (Best Female Performance), Equity (Best Ensemble), Scottish Drama Training Network (Best Director), and BECTU (Best Technical), and Young Scot (Best Production for Children and Young People), and also by the Mackintosh Foundation, BBC Scotland Radio Drama and The List.

Ends

Notes for Editors

The CATS judging panel for 2019 comprised Mary Brennan (The Herald), Mark Brown (Herald on Sunday/Sunday National and The Daily Telegraph), Anna Burnside (Daily Record), Paul F Cockburn (BroadwayBaby), Neil Cooper (The Herald), Michael Cox (Across the Arts), Thom Dibdin (The Stage and AllEdinburghTheatre.com), Mark Fisher (The Guardian), Joyce McMillan (The Scotsman), David Pollock (The Independent), Allan Radcliffe (The Times), Amy Taylor (The Skinny) and Joy Watters (Across the Arts).

2019 CATS SHORTLISTS: HERE