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CRITICS' AWARDS FOR THEATRE IN SCOTLAND
CATS AWARDS 2018
WINNERS & NOMINEES
The 2018 CATS awards took place at Perth Theatre on Sun 10 June. Our special guest presenter was Blythe Duff, best known for her role as Jackie Reid in the ITV television series drama, Taggart.
Here are the winners and nominees for the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland 2018.
Guest presenter Blythe Duff
Best Male Performance
Joseph Arkley (Richard III)
Richard III, Perth Theatre
Image © Tommy Ga Ken Wan
Image © Tommy Ga Ken Wan
George Costigan (James Tyrone)
Long Day’s Journey into Night, Citizens Theatre and HOME Manchester
Image © Tim Morozza
Image © Tim Morozza
Robert Jack (Berenger)
Rhinoceros, Edinburgh International Festival and Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh in association
with DOT Theatre, Istanbul
WINNER - Best Male Performance
Robert Jack perfectly captures the role of Berenger, the dishevelled over-refreshed bystander staggering about an apparently irrational world. Wide-eyed and hapless, his portrait of total incomprehension is stunning as is his realisation that the inhabitants of the town are all being turned into rhinoceroses and he alone is left unscathed, to fight on.
Image © Mihaela Bodlovic
with DOT Theatre, Istanbul
WINNER - Best Male Performance
Robert Jack perfectly captures the role of Berenger, the dishevelled over-refreshed bystander staggering about an apparently irrational world. Wide-eyed and hapless, his portrait of total incomprehension is stunning as is his realisation that the inhabitants of the town are all being turned into rhinoceroses and he alone is left unscathed, to fight on.
Image © Mihaela Bodlovic
Ramesh Meyyappan
Off-Kilter, Ramesh Meyyappan Productions, Tron Theatre, Glasgow and TheatreWorks Singapore. Produced by Raw Material Arts
Best Female Performance
Charlene Boyd (Lady Macbeth)
The Macbeths, Citizens Theatre
Image © Alan Peebles
Image © Alan Peebles
Apphia Campbell (Ambrosia and Assata Shakur)
WOKE, Play the Spotlight Productions
Image © Mihaela Bodlovic
Image © Mihaela Bodlovic
Jessica Hardwick (Young Woman)
Knives in Hens, Perth Theatre
WINNER - Best Female Performance
When Jessica Hardwick first came onstage in David Harrower’s remarkable play, Knives in Hens, she was as unrecognisable as she has been in pretty much everything she has done in her still short acting career. It’s not that Hardwick lacked charisma. Far from it. It’s just that she seems to possess an ability to shapeshift in a way that allows whatever character she’s playing to absorb her completely, yet still manages to stamp her personality all over it. As Harrower’s Young Woman, nameless and near inarticulate, Hardwick was utterly fearless in her embodiment of her, so the woman’s primal hunger for knowledge became a physical thing. It was in those moments that Hardwick’s emotional depth as an actress fired up the stage with an urgency that suggested she was willing to fly without a safety net.
Image © Tommy Ga Ken Wan
WINNER - Best Female Performance
When Jessica Hardwick first came onstage in David Harrower’s remarkable play, Knives in Hens, she was as unrecognisable as she has been in pretty much everything she has done in her still short acting career. It’s not that Hardwick lacked charisma. Far from it. It’s just that she seems to possess an ability to shapeshift in a way that allows whatever character she’s playing to absorb her completely, yet still manages to stamp her personality all over it. As Harrower’s Young Woman, nameless and near inarticulate, Hardwick was utterly fearless in her embodiment of her, so the woman’s primal hunger for knowledge became a physical thing. It was in those moments that Hardwick’s emotional depth as an actress fired up the stage with an urgency that suggested she was willing to fly without a safety net.
Image © Tommy Ga Ken Wan
Sara Stewart (Martha)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Rapture Theatre
Image © Infinite Blue Designs
Image © Infinite Blue Designs
Best Ensemble
August: Osage County
Dundee Rep Ensemble
Image © Tommy Ga Ken Wan
Image © Tommy Ga Ken Wan
The Belle’s Stratagem
Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh
WINNER - Best Ensemble
The cast of this stylish, colourful comedy took it close to pantomime in their occasional breaking of the fourth wall. But they retained an intense theatricality in a series of generous performances that served both the comedy – with brilliant understanding of its rhythm – and the more serious points in a script that celebrates women as the driving force of its narrative.
Image © Mihaela Bodlovic
WINNER - Best Ensemble
The cast of this stylish, colourful comedy took it close to pantomime in their occasional breaking of the fourth wall. But they retained an intense theatricality in a series of generous performances that served both the comedy – with brilliant understanding of its rhythm – and the more serious points in a script that celebrates women as the driving force of its narrative.
Image © Mihaela Bodlovic
Cockpit
Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh
Image © Mihaela Bodlovic
Image © Mihaela Bodlovic
Rhinoceros
Edinburgh International Festival and Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh in association with DOT Theatre, Istanbul
Image © Mihaela Bodlovic
Image © Mihaela Bodlovic
Best Director
Murat Daltaban
Rhinoceros, Edinburgh International Festival and Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh in association with DOT Theatre, Istanbul
WINNER - Best Director
The nomination of Murat Daltaban for his production of Ionesco’s Rhinoceros has a particular significance. The play is a powerful warning about the dangers of conformity, of a mass succumbing to a social miasma that robs us of our culture, our freedom and, ultimately, our humanity. The times in which we live can feel like the 1930s with the film running slightly slower. That is particularly true of Daltaban’s homeland Turkey, where freedom of thought and expression, not least the freedoms of theatremakers, are currently under serious threat. Daltaban’s beautifully crafted production succeeded in capturing simultaneously the quasi-surreal craziness, the midnight dark humour and the sharp social allegory of the play. Brilliantly cast, perfectly paced and impressively integrated, in terms of the combination of its performative, visual and aural elements, his unforgettable production bore the hallmark of the director as master craftsman.
Image © Mihaela Bodlovic
WINNER - Best Director
The nomination of Murat Daltaban for his production of Ionesco’s Rhinoceros has a particular significance. The play is a powerful warning about the dangers of conformity, of a mass succumbing to a social miasma that robs us of our culture, our freedom and, ultimately, our humanity. The times in which we live can feel like the 1930s with the film running slightly slower. That is particularly true of Daltaban’s homeland Turkey, where freedom of thought and expression, not least the freedoms of theatremakers, are currently under serious threat. Daltaban’s beautifully crafted production succeeded in capturing simultaneously the quasi-surreal craziness, the midnight dark humour and the sharp social allegory of the play. Brilliantly cast, perfectly paced and impressively integrated, in terms of the combination of its performative, visual and aural elements, his unforgettable production bore the hallmark of the director as master craftsman.
Image © Mihaela Bodlovic
Angie Dight
Nursery Crymes, Mischief La-Bas and MSL Projects in association with In Situ, UZ Arts and Radiator Arts
Image © Niall Walker
Image © Niall Walker
Lu Kemp
Knives in Hens, Perth Theatre
Image © Tommy Ga Ken Wan
Image © Tommy Ga Ken Wan
Wils Wilson
Cockpit, Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh
Image © Mihaela Bodlovic
Image © Mihaela Bodlovic