Best Male Performance

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• Cliff Burnett (Franz Stangl), Into That Darkness, Citizens Theatre

• WINNER - Sandy Grierson (Lanark/Duncan Thaw), Lanark: A Life in Three Acts, Citizens Theatre and the Edinburgh International Festival in association with Graham Eatough and Sorcha Dallas

• Paul Higgins (Ray), Blackbird, Citizens Theatre

• Barrie Hunter (Bob), Descent, A Play, a Pie and a Pint and the Traverse Theatre, in association with Luminate

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“Playing the title role in David Greig and Graham Eatough’s mighty staging of Alasdair Gray’s epic novel, Lanark, Sandy Grierson proves once again how his powerful and charismatic presence can hold a stage. As he moved through the three acts of his own life, Lanark, aka Duncan Thaw, was presented by Grierson as an eternally bemused everyman in a confusing world. Grierson was understated but totally watchable as he put flesh and blood on one of literature’s most iconic figures"

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Best Female Performance

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• Maureen Beattie (Juliette), Right Now, Traverse Theatre, Theatre Royal Bath Ustinov Studio and Bush Theatre 

• Emmanuella Cole (Hera), The Iliad, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

• Angela Darcy (Lisa), Ring Road, A Play, a Pie and a Pint, and the Traverse Theatre

• WINNER - Pauline Knowles (Clytemnestra), This Restless House, Citizens Theatre and National Theatre of Scotland

 

“As Clytemnestra in Zinnie Harris’s This Restless House, Pauline Knowles·was a queen and a mother who had, over a long decade, weaponised her anguish and rage at the murder of her child. She delivered her revenge hot with a combination of bleak, poetic wit, erotic power and decisive brutality. It was a remarkable performance which ran the gamut of human, and particularly female, experience, and in which Knowles embodied both Everywoman and the haughtiest of aristocrats.”

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Best Ensemble

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• Great Expectations, Horsecross Arts and Dundee Rep Ensemble

• Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, National Theatre of Scotland and Live Theatre

• Purposeless Movements, Birds of Paradise Theatre Company

• WINNER - Waiting for Godot, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

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“Beautiful, mysterious, and as poignant as it is funny, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot is universally recognised as one of the greatest plays of the 20th century; and many of those who saw it rated last September’s Lyceum production as the finest staging of it they had ever seen. It’s a play that famously revolves around the figures of the two old tramps Vladimir and Estragon, brilliant played at the Lyceum by Brian Cox and Bill Paterson. But the success of this perfectly poised drama depends on every element of the production working in harmony, and each of the characters – Vladimir, Estragon, their visitors Pozzo and Lucky, and even the little boy who appears to tell them that Mr Godot will not come today – supporting all the others. It’s because it achieved this balance so perfectly, and offered such a masterclass in magnificent acting from every member of the cast, that we are delighted to award this year’s Best Ensemble award to the Waiting For Godot company, with our congratulations on a great Lyceum 50th anniversary show, that also lit up the year in Scottish theatre.”

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Best Director

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• WINNER - Dominic Hill, This Restless House, Citizens Theatre and National Theatre of Scotland

• Jemima Levick, Great Expectations, Horsecross Arts and Dundee Rep Ensemble

• Robert Softley Gale, Purposeless Movements, Birds of Paradise Theatre Company

• Mark Thomson, Waiting for Godot, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

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“The sheer ambition of This Restless House, the range of vision required to bring the story to life, called for a director like Dominic Hill. In a trilogy with many strong elements – the writing, the design, the cast – his hand was the one that pulled it into a triumphant whole.”

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Best Design

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• Adrian Barber, Kim Bergsagel, Iain Halket, Symon Macintyre, Tony Reason, Alice Wilson (designers) and Stephen Moir (assistant designer), Drift, Vision Mechanics and Nordland Visual Theatre, Stamsund, Norway

• WINNER - Laura Hopkins (designer), Nigel Edwards (lighting designer) and Simon Wainwright (video artist), Lanark: A Life in Three Acts, Citizens Theatre and the Edinburgh International Festival in association with Graham Eatough and Sorcha Dallas

• Becky Minto (designer) and Mike Robertson (lighting designer), Great Expectations, Horsecross Arts and Dundee Rep Ensemble

• Michael Taylor (designer) and Mark Doubleday (lighting designer), Waiting for Godot, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

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“Designer Laura Hopkins along with lighting designer Nigel Edwards and video artist Simon Wainwright, between them made the seemingly impossible possible in an array of stylised creations that involved a virtual Glasgow and the weird world of Unthank along with a colossal realisation of Alasdair Gray himself as well as some amazing graphics of Gray’s drawings.”

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Best Music & Sound

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• Nikola Kodjabashia (composer/ sound designer), This Restless House, Citizens Theatre and National Theatre of Scotland

• WINNER - Martin Lowe (music arranger and supervisor), Mike Walker (sound designer), the band and cast, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, National Theatre of Scotland and Live Theatre

• Eddie McGuire (composer), Nik Paget-Tomlinson (sound design), Gerda Stevenson (singer) and Niroshini Thambar (sound design), Drift, Vision Mechanics and Nordland Visual Theatre, Stamsund, Norway

• Nick Powell (composer/sound designer), Lanark: A Life in Three Acts, Citizens Theatre and the Edinburgh International Festival in association with Graham Eatough and Sorcha Dallas

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“‘Gorgeous’, ‘sublimely rich’ singing, ‘brilliantly’ arranged from a wide variety of music and performed by a ‘thrilling’ band – critics were filled with superlatives when describing the live music used in Our Ladies. Rather than being a theatrical flourish, the music was the linchpin of the production, not only electrifying audiences with the excellence of each number but also giving the characters – individually and as an ensemble – depth and soul."

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Best Technical Presentation

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• Beauty and the Beast, Horsecross Arts

• Drift, Vision Mechanics and Nordland Visual Theatre, Stamsund, Norway

• The Driver’s Seat, National Theatre of Scotland

• WINNER - Lanark: A Life in Three Acts, Citizens Theatre and the Edinburgh International Festival in association with Graham Eatough and Sorcha Dallas

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“David Greig’s adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s landmark novel was a major theatrical event and an extraordinary technical triumph. The sun-starved world of Unthank and the sinister, authoritarian Institute were brought to life through an extraordinary blend of live action, lighting and sound, animation and projection, all against the backdrop of Laura Hopkins’ impressive set designs. The production was a feast for the senses, with its technical virtuosity aligning seamlessly with the writing, acting and Graham Eatough’s direction.”

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Best Production for Children & Young People

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• Little Red and the Wolf, Dundee Rep Ensemble in association with Noisemaker 

• Lost at Sea, Catherine Wheels Theatre Company, commissioned by Edinburgh International Science Festival working in partnership with Imaginate

• Magic Sho, Shona Reppe, produced by Catherine Wheels Theatre Company

• WINNER - Uncanny Valley, Borderline Theatre in co-production with the Gaiety Theatre, commissioned by Edinburgh International Science Festival working in partnership with Imaginate

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“Can your best friend really be a robot? And can robots really adapt to think and feel like humans? The story in Rob Drummond’s play, Uncanny Valley, makes one girl’s attachment to her techno-chum into a nail-biting race to re-programme her robot before the local mayor has it destroyed – at the same time, however, Drummond’s interaction with young audiences encourages them to explore, and voice, their own ideas about our relationship with technology and ongoing advances in artificial intelligence. Issue-based theatre is rarely as witty, thought-provoking or as open to audience reactions as this piece for children and young people.”

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Best New Play

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• Linda Duncan McLaughlin, Descent, A Play, a Pie and a Pint and the Traverse Theatre, in association with Luminate

• Gary McNair, A Gambler’s Guide to Dying, Gary McNair with Show and Tell

• WINNER - Zinnie Harris, This Restless House, Citizens Theatre and National Theatre of Scotland

• Anita Vettesse, Ring Road, A Play, a Pie and a Pint and the Traverse Theatre

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“Zinnie Harris’s This Restless House, a reimagining of Aeschylus’ great trilogy, The Oresteia, combined the ancient Greek epic with a raw and modern sensibility. This 21st-century adaptation of the tale of the troubled royal house of Argos, told from a female perspective, was an unforgettable piece of theatre, powered by an astounding script and electrifying performances.”·

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Best Production

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• Lanark: A Life in Three Acts, Citizens Theatre and the Edinburgh International Festival in association with Graham Eatough and Sorcha Dallas

• Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, National Theatre of Scotland and Live Theatre

• This Restless House, Citizens Theatre and National Theatre of Scotland

• WINNER - Waiting for Godot, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

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“Mark Thomson’s lucid, precisely choreographed production got under the skin of a modern·classic, ensuring it was not just a star vehicle for two very well known actors·but a full-blooded ensemble·performance – one of the triumphs of the Royal Lyceum’s·50th-anniversary season and of the whole Scottish theatre calendar.”

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