The Irish Times Theatre Awards are almost upon us, and the speculation has never been higher. I took a look at the nominees for this year’s awards and the productions being thrown into the spotlight for displaying excellence on stage in 2017.
The contenders for the award of Best Production range from John Logan’s Red to Caryl Churchill’s Far Away. The other contenders include Hamnet, a production that was a part of the Dublin Theatre Festival last year, which is a solo piece for an 11-year-old boy that left audiences stunned. Alongside that is Woyzeck in Winter, which also played in Dublin Theatre Festival, although it received less glowing reviews.
Best New Writing sees Hamnet nominated again, putting writers Bush Moukarzel and Ben Kidd into the hot seat. The category also sees Enda Walsh being nominated for The Same. Walsh never fails to deliver, so this nomination is unsurprising as he continues to produce consistently high-quality work. Clare Monnelly is up for Charlie’s A Clepto, along with Iseult Golden and David Horan for Class.
The gender balance present in the Best Director nominations would certainly be something to make a current scholar of Waking the Feminist critique happy, with Garry Hynes being nominated for King of the Castle and Emma Jordan for her production of Red, together representing half of the nominations. The others included in this honour are Bush Moukarzel and Ben Kidd, receiving their third, but not final, nomination for Hamnet, and Enda Walsh for The Second Violinist.
Across all categories, from Best Actor to Best Lighting Design and Best Ensemble to Best Movement Design, a number of productions appear to be leading the pack in terms of nominations. Dead Centre and The Abbey’s Hamnet is nominated for a total of five awards, Red by Prime Cut and Lyric Theatre has been nominated six times, as has Woyzeck in Winter, and The Second Violinist has also received four nominations.
The Judges Special Award sees the best companies, production teams and collaboratives nominated for their work in improving the theatre sector, making it more intersectional, accessible and beneficial to a new generation of theatre-makers. The nominees in this category are Rough Magic for the SEEDS programme, Abbey Theatre for Free First Previews, Corcadorca for its commitment to bringing theatre and audiences to unusual locations, and the Bewley’s Cafe Theatre for providing space and support for lunchtime theatre in the heart of Dublin city since 1999.
The final award given by the judges is that of the Special Tribute. This year that award goes to Eleanor Methven “for challenging inequalities in Irish theatre, creating opportunities for positive change and, as a performer, always seeking richer ways to tell a story”.
