Tag Archives: Adrian Lester

58th London Evening Standard Theatre Awards, in association with Burberry

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Cate Blanchett, Anne-Marie Duff, Rupert Everett, Adrian Lester, Eddie Redmayne, Joely Richardson, Michael Sheen, Sheridan Smith and David Suchet are among the stage stars tipped

 

 

The London Evening Standard today unveils the longlist for its 2012 Theatre Awards, presented for the first time this year in association with Burberry.

 

·       In a remarkable year for Nicholas Hytner’s National Theatre, it leads the longlist with 22 entries; followed by the Royal Court with 13.

 

·       With four nods, the most longlistedplay this year is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Simon Stephens’ adaptation of Mark Haddon’s novel about a boy with Asperger’s.

 

·       Olympic Closing Ceremony set designer Es Devlin is longlisted in the Design category for The Master and the Margarita, at the Complicite at the Barbican.

 

·       Eddie Redmayne, Simon Paisley Day and Michael Sheen battle it out for Best Actor with their leading Shakespeare roles in Richard II, Taming of the Shrew and Hamlet.

 

·       It is a good year for women, with inaugural productions from new female artistic directors recognised and a host of stellar performances in strong female roles.

 

·       This year a new award has been announced with the Burberry Award for Emerging Director. The award celebrates a young director who is set to be a star of tomorrow’s London stage.

From Hollywood A-listers to Britain’s most celebrated playwrights, the longlist for the 2012 London Evening Standard Theatre Awards, in association with Burberry, puts an array of big names – and rising stars – in the running for a statuette. All are recognised for contributing to a stellar year in the capital’s theatres.

This year’s winners will be revealed at an evening dinner and Awards ceremony, presented by One Man, Two Guvnors star James Corden at the Savoy Hotel on Sunday 25th November 2012.

The event is co-hosted by London Evening Standard Owner Evgeny Lebedev, Burberry Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey and American Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour.

 

The longlist reflects a heavy-weight year for women, with the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress category featuring some of the biggest female roles for the stage. Three Ibsen plays provided meaty roles for: Sheridan Smith, thrilling as the capricious Hedda in Hedda Gabler; Hattie Morahan, moving as the trapped housewife Nora in A Doll’s House; and Joely Richardson, luminous as Ellida in Lady from the Sea. In this role, Richardson follows her mother Vanessa Redgrave’s 1979 portrayal and the 2009 performance of her late sister, Natasha, in whose memory this award is given.

 

Cate Blanchett’s sellout performance as Lotte in the translation of German play Big and Small is also recognised, along with Imelda Staunton’s Mrs Lovett in the hit West End production of Sweeney Todd.

 

It is a good year for women behind the scenes too, with two new artistic directors hitting the mark with their inaugural productions. New Donmar chief Josie Rourke is up for Best Director for her exciting staging of The Recruiting Officer. At the Tricycle, Indhu Rubasingham’s opening production, new play Red Velvet, wins a longlist place for its first-time author, Lolita Chakrabarti, in The Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright category. Red Velvet also offers Adrian Lesterthe chance to pick up the award for Best Actor, as real-life 19th century black actor Ira Aldridge, who was hounded off the London stage.

 

Also featuring on the longlist is Es Devlin, the Olympic Closing Ceremony set designer whose work for Master and the Margarita puts her in the Best Design category.

 

Battling it out with Lester and others for Best Actor are Eddie Redmayne, Simon Paisley Day and Michael Sheen – all for their leading roles in Shakespeare productions, with Redmayne playing Richard II at the Donmar Warehouse, Paisley Day playing Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew and Sheen in the Young Vic’s production of Hamlet.

 

The most longlisted play this year is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Simon Stephens’ adaptation of Mark Haddon’s novel about a boy with Asperger’s. The National Theatre production, in the Cottesloe space, is mentioned in four categories:  Best Director, Best Play, Best Actor and Best Design.

 

Two musical productions that originated at the Chichester Theatre and transferred to the West End are rivals for the Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical: Sweeney Todd and Singin’ in the Rain. The consistently strong fringe venue Southwark Playhouse also fields two shows in this category: Floyd Collins (directed by Derek Bond) and Mack & Mabel (directed by Thom Southerland).  Swallows and Amazons, which features the music and lyrics from Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon, is also in the running.

 

The National Theatre leads the longlist, with 22 entries across its three stages. Next, the Royal Court, home of new writing, has 13.

 

This year’s awards has eight categories: with Best Play, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Design, Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress, Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical, Milton Shulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer and Charles Wintour Award for Most PromisingPlaywright – an award named in memory of the former Editor of the Evening Standard and Anna Wintour’s father.

 

In addition to eight longlisted awards, which are decided by a panel of theatre critics and London Evening Standard’s editor, Sarah Sands, five other special awards will be presented on the night. These are the Burberry Award for Emerging Director (new for this year), the Lebedev Special Award, the Editor’s Award, Beyond Theatre and the Moscow Art Theatre’s Golden Seagull.

 

The shortlist will be announced in the London Evening Standard on 12 November.

 

The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2012 in association with Burberry.

 

BEST PLAY

 

Choir Boy  by Tarell Alvin McCraney,  (Royal Court Upstairs)

 

Constellations by Nick Payne (Royal Court Upstairs)

 

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Simon Stephens (National’s Cottesloe)

 

Jumpy by April De Angelis (Royal Court Downstairs)

 

The Last of the Duchess by Nicholas Wright (Hampstead)

 

Love and Information by Caryl Churchill  (Royal Court Downstairs)

 

Love Love Love by Mike Bartlett (Royal Court Downstairs)

 

Reasons to Be Pretty by Neil LaBute (Almeida)

 

South Downs by David Hare (Chichester Minerva)

 

This House by James Graham (National’s Cottesloe)

 

The Witness  by Vivienne Franzmann (Royal Court Upstairs)

 

 

BEST DIRECTOR

 

Benedict Andrews for Three Sisters (Young Vic)

 

Lucy Bailey for Uncle Vanya (The Print Room)

 

Tom Cairns for Scenes from an Execution (National’s Lyttelton)

 

Carrie Cracknell for A Doll’s House (Young Vic)

 

Marianne Elliott for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (National’s Cottesloe)

 

Polly Findlay for Antigone (National’s Lyttelton)

 

Sean Foley for The Ladykillers (Gielgud)

 

Jeremy Herrin for This House (National’s Cottesloe)

 

Nicholas Hytner for Timon of Athens (National’s Olivier)

 

Jonathan Kent for Sweeney Todd (Chichester Festival and Adelphi)

 

James Macdonald for Love and Information (Royal Court Downstairs)

 

Roger Michell for Farewell to the Theatre (Hampstead)

 

Lindsay Posner for Noises Off  (Old Vic)

 

Ian Rickson for Hamlet (Young Vic)

 

Josie Rourke for The Recruiting Officer (DonmarWarehouse)

 

Lyndsey Turner for Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Donmar Warehouse)

 

 

BEST ACTOR

 

Simon Russell Beale, Collaborators (National’s Cottesloe)

 

Charles Edwards, The King’s Speech (Wyndham’s) and This House  (National’s Cottesloe)

 

Rupert Everett, The Judas Kiss (Hampstead)

 

Laurence Fox, Our Boys (Duchess)

 

David Haig, The Madness of George III (Theatre Royal Bath and Apollo)

 

Douglas Hodge, Inadmissible Evidence (Donmar Warehouse)

 

Alex Jennings, Collaborators (National’s Cottesloe)

 

Rory Kinnear, The Last of the Haussmans (National’s Lyttelton)

 

Adrian Lester, Red Velvet (Tricycle Theatre)

 

Simon Paisley Day,  The Taming of  the Shrew (Shakespeare’s Globe)

 

Eddie Redmayne, Richard II (Donmar Warehouse)

 

Adrian Scarborough, Hedda Gabler (Old Vic)

 

Michael Sheen, Hamlet (Young Vic)

 

Scott Shepherd, Gatz (Elevator Repair Service at Noel Coward)

 

David Suchet, Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Apollo)

 

Luke Treadaway, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, (National Theatre’s Cottesloe)

 

 

NATASHA RICHARDSON AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS

 

Eileen Atkins, All That Fall (Jermyn Street)

 

Pippa Bennett Warner, The Witness (Royal Court Upstairs)

 

Eve Best, The Duchess of Malfi (Old Vic)

 

Cate Blanchett, Big and Small (Sydney Theatre Company for Barbican)

 

Anna Chancellor, The Last of the Duchess (Hampstead)

 

Anne-Marie Duff, Berenice (Donmar Warehouse)

 

Mariah Gale, Three Sisters (Young Vic)

 

Tamsin Greig, Jumpy (Royal Court Downstairs andDuke of York’s)

 

Sally Hawkins, Constellations (Royal Court Upstairs)

 

Martina Laird, Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (National’sCottesloe)

 

Helen McCrory, The Last of the Haussmans (National’s Lyttelton)

 

Laurie Metcalf, Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Apollo)

 

Hattie Morahan, A Doll’s House (Young Vic)

 

Joely Richardson, The Lady from the Sea (Kingston’s Rose Theatre)

 

Sheridan Smith, Hedda Gabler (Old Vic)

 

Imelda Staunton, Sweeney Todd (Chichester and Adelphi)

 


NED SHERRIN AWARD FOR BEST MUSICAL

 

Floyd Collins (Southwark Playhouse)

Directed by Derek Bond

 

Mack & Mabel (Southwark Playhouse)

Directed by Thom Southerland

 

Singin’ In the Rain (Chichester Festival and Palace Theatre)

Directed by Jonathan Church

 

Swallows and Amazons (presented by the National Theatre in association with The Children’s Touring Partnership at the Vaudeville Theatre)

Music and lyrics by Neil Hannon

Script by Helen Edmundson

Directed by Tom Morris

 

Sweeney Todd (Chichester Festival and Adelphi)

Directed by Jonathan Kent

 

Top Hat (Aldwych)

Directed by Matthew White

Adaptation for Stage: Howard Jacques and Matthew White

 

 

BEST DESIGN

 

Hildegard Bechtler, Top Hat ( Aldwych)

 

Miriam Buether, Wild Swans (A Young Vic/American Repertory Theatre/Actors Touring Company co-production)

 

Bunny Christie, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (National’s Cottesloe)

 

Kevin Depinet, Detroit (National’s Cottesloe)

 

Es Devlin, The Master and Margarita (Complicite at Barbican)

 

Soutra Gilmour, Inadmissible Evidence (Donmar Warehouse ) and Antigone (National’s Olivier)

 

Richard Kent, Richard II (Donmar Warehouse)

 

Ian MacNeil, A Doll’s House (Young Vic)

 

Peter McKintosh, Noises Off (Old Vic)

 

Vicki Mortimer, The Last of the Haussmans (National’s Lyttelton)

 

Lucy Osborne, The Recruiting Officer (Donmar Warehouse)

 

Michael Taylor, The Ladykillers (Gielgud)

 

Jamie Vartan, Misterman (National’s Lyttelton)

 

 

 

CHARLES WINTOUR AWARD FOR MOST PROMISING PLAYWRIGHT

 

Stephen Beresford, The Last of the Haussmans (National’s Lyttelton)

 

Lolita Chakrabarti, Red Velvet (Tricycle)

 

Ishy Din, Snookered (Bush)

 

Vickie Donoghue, Mudlarks (Bush)

 

Nancy Harris, Our New Girl (Bush)

 

John Hodge, Collaborators (National’s Cottesloe)

 

Luke Norris, Goodbye to All That (Royal Court Upstairs)

 

Nicholas Pierpan, You Can Still Make a Killing (Southwark Playhouse)

 

Tim Price, Salt, Root and Roe (Trafalgar Studios)

 

Hayley Squires, Vera Vera Vera (Royal Court Upstairs andTheatre Local Peckham)

 

Tom Wells, The Kitchen Sink (Bush)

 

 

THE MILTON SHULMAN AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING NEWCOMER

 

Jonathan Bailey, South Downs (Chichester Minerva and Harold Pinter)

 

Denise Gough, Our New Girl (Bush) and Desire Under the Elms (Lyric Hammersmith)

 

David Fynn, She Stoops to Conquer (National’s Olivier)

 

Cush Jumbo, She Stoops to Conquer (National’s Olivier)

 

Abby Rakic-Platt, Vera Vera Vera (Royal Court Upstairs and Theatre Local Peckham)

 

Matthew Tennyson, Making Noise Quietly (Donmar Warehouse)

 

Joshua Williams, Shivered (Southwark Playhouse)and  Love and Information (Royal Court Upstairs)

 

Emi Wokoma, Soul Sister (Hackney Empire and Savoy)

 

Jack Bowman On Directing Stephen Fry and the Wireless Theatre Company.

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from left to right: Jack Bowman, Stephen Fry, Sue Casanove, Nick Lucas, Adam Hall, Mariele Runacre Temple.

Jack Bowman, actor (he plays Jamie in my film Prose & Cons), director, writer and all-round brilliant guy recently directed Stephen Fry. He was then lovely enough to give Frost Magazine the low-down;

What was it like directing Stephen Fry?

An enormous honour and incredibly exciting! No, really, even my dad was impressed, which doesn’t happen that often…! One of the most amazing things about Wireless Theatre is how willing Mariele Runacre Temple – the artistic director – is to give good, new talent a chance. It was a combination of her trust in me and pure luck which meant this project AND Stephen’s involvement in it happened to be the one that ended up on my slate as a director. When Mariele forwarded me the email, I couldn’t believe it, honestly, I just couldn’t. And what’s lovely is, this isn’t a one-off – it’s happened to other directors as well; it’s a massive testament to the quality of the work in attracting the best talent and ethos of what Mariele instills in Wireless Theatre from the top down.

Were you nervous?

I don’t think I ever was – though once the initial excitement passed, however, there was more a nervous concern that something might occur which meant it wouldn’t happen. He’s got QI, he’s been filming the Hobbit, hosting the BAFTAs, writing a new book, Tweeting constantly, he’s about to appear at the Globe… and so on. He makes the hardest-working people look lazy. He has such amazing energy and work ethic. But would something happen? Would something else come up? And yet, it all came to pass with the exact timing, as scheduled, some four months previously by his brilliant reps. Who knows what they are doing, to the hour four, months from now? That’s a man who has a brilliant agent and keeps a perfect diary. Wonderful.

Was it intimidating?

It could have been, as the man is a national treasure. However, I know a few people who have worked with him before and assured me I had nothing to worry about, that he was a lovely man and a true gent – And no-one gets to be a national treasure unless they are anything but wonderful as a person. And he was! Ultimately, thanks to the experience I’ve gained from Mariele and working with her and at Wireless, I know how to direct my actors and what she expects from them. Also, the quality of the new writing means we’re always able to offer great scripts to great actors, known or unknown. Once you have the experience of having met and worked with 160+ actors, passionate about what they do, passionate about Wireless, and often wanting to return time and time again, you quickly realise that there’s no difference between a ‘name’ and anyone else. We work so hard to look after our various casts, and it pays off. Everyone, barring Stephen, in the session was returning cast, so that made things easier, each was playing a returning character, and I’ve all worked with them elsewhere. I know what Adam Hall, Nick Lucas and Sue Casanove can do and trusted them all. It’s another fun day with good, talented friends.

And then, suddenly, you realise that five years of Wireless have gone by, now Stephen Fry is in the studio coming along to play too. Yet you never feel worried or intimidated in any way. He’s another addition to what’s been a very happy, transitory and ever-growing, professional family.

What I have to do – as part of that family at that particular time as a director – is to serve the script by getting the best out of the cast. If you approach and support any actor with that attitude, that sense of play, then you have nothing to fear from anyone. With that in mind, just before we began recording, I simply asked Stephen if he had any ideas on how he wanted to approach his opening scene, and he simply said, “no, I’ll do it and you tell me what you’d like.” And that’s how it worked – he’d do a blissfully wonderful take, and once he hit his stride, I’d give him the freedom to play around some more. There’s one scene that I wish I could tell you more about, but in it Stephen started ad-libbing and we were all in hysterics. The words, “oh God,” have never made me laugh so much…

How did you get him to do your project?

Right at the very, very start, when Mariele Runacre Temple first launched the Wireless Theatre Company five years ago, she started to write a list of people to approach – and Stephen was the very first person she asked to be involved, given his love of the spoken word. However, he’s an incredibly busy man, and despite a lot of support from his agent, we began to wonder if it would ever happen.

Then Sue Casanove revealed she had an idea for a sequel for her audio comedy, We Are Not The BBC, which I directed last year. The central gag of We Are Not The BBC features Christopher Timothy, of All Creatures Great And Small and Doctors, sending himself up. So, I asked Sue who she was thinking of in that sort of role for the next installment and she said, “Stephen Fry.” Knowing it had been tough until now, I thought, “it’s going to be tough, but if Sue’s script lives up to the quality of the first one, we might just stand a chance here you know…” We had a meeting in London, she knocked some ideas back and forth and off she went, back to Wales.

A few months later, the script arrived and I was blown away. Sue had knocked it out of the park – I couldn’t put it down. I text her straight away, saying, “if the first one was A New Hope, this is your The Empire Strikes Back.” By that, I mean, this wasn’t as good as the first one, which was great, it was better, absolutely better than what had come before. It was so, so clever; darker, smarter, more ambitious. She’d told me where it might head, yet I didn’t see this coming. Having evolved from what she’d told me, beyond what I imagined, it gripped me from start to finish.

And I let Mariele know that maybe, just maybe, this might be the one Stephen might say yes too. Mariele dispatched it to his agent, we waited nervously and then, some months later came the message, out of the blue – Stephen loves the script. He’s free for one hour, June 6th, it’s in his diary.

Were you a fan prior to the recording?

Oh gosh yes! Who isn’t? Yes, I grew up with him from the days of Blackadder as a child. However it’s been wonderful to watch him have such an amazing career since – A Bit Of Fry And Laurie, Me And My Girl, Wilde, Bright Young Things, QI… The funny thing though, my favourite Stephen Fry memory is not one most people may even remember, but it’s the time he affected me the most deeply. He was presenting the BAFTA Film Awards that followed 9/11, and in his final speech of the evening, he spoke from the heart and talked about the need for film to spread hope and love across the world, as it would enrage the heart of anyone who struck out in anger in the way we’d seen on that terrible day. There’s so much to love that man for, and his work, yet that for me is the pinnacle.

Tell us about the project.

It’s called We Are The BBC, and is a sequel to We Are Not The BBC, which saw a Welsh Am-Dram group try to record a BBC-style audio play while the politics and egos threaten to topple the production, not to mention confuse poor Christopher Timothy. A lot. We Are The BBC picks some time later, when Stephen, playing himself, wins a BAFTA for his performance in a script by a promising new celebrity writer who used to belong to the same Ad-Dram group. However, it’s quickly clear that all is not as it seems and Stephen finds himself at the centre of the intrigue as things start to unravel…

And, touch wood, we’ll have another name joining the project next week too… But I can’t say anything yet.

How long did it take?

Wireless works exceptionally fast and Mariele always runs a slick studio – something that often surprises anyone new to Wireless! We had a professional cast and crew and Stephen’s exceptionally good at what he does; just as well, because we were allowed one hour of his time! Even with several retakes, we were able to get Stephen’s material all down in 40 minutes. Not only did he respond wonderfully to direction, he did that rare thing and with each note; he’d elevate it into something even better. Combine that with the well-oiled Wireless machine, and it was job done – which was just as well as he was straight off to record QI that afternoon after finishing with us. What’s even more extraordinary was on arriving, he apologised, revealing that he was suffering from flu symptoms. Yet he still turns in a barn-storming performance. When you see that happen first-hand, you realise why he’s as loved and respected as he is.

Do you think Stephen will stay in contact?

I hope so! At the very least, I’d love him to follow Wireless, Sue and myself on Twitter -@wirelesstheatre, @suecasanove and @realjackbowman, in case he reads this! At best, we’d love him to come back sometime in the future and work with Wireless again, even if it means we have to find an hour of our time five years from now. It was an amazing pleasure!

Who else do you want to work with?

ooh, well… On my list as a director… Michael Sheen, David Suchet, David Tennant, Sir Derek Jacobi, John Simm, Adrian Lester, Dame Judi Dench, Tom Hollander, Simon Russell-Beale, Samantha Bond, Imelda Staunton, Paterson Joseph, Joanna Lumley, Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Firth, Bill Nighy, Keeley Hawes, Patrick Stewart, Idris Elba… Also, one day, I’d love to direct or act alongside or write for Sophie Aldred. I can 100% tell you I would not be here today if it wasn’t for her inspiring me into acting, and would love to repay her until the end of time.

I know Mariele would love to work with Rik Mayall, who’s amazing. Again, who remembers his 90’s anthology series, Rik Mayall Presents? Three specials, and two of them broke your heart…

The thing to strive for, though, is that even if I’d love to work with X, the questions always have to be, “are they right for the role,” “does casting them serve the story?” There’s no point in shoe-horning in X for the sake of it, because then you don’t do the script any favours, the cast any favours and your reputation any favours. The right actor gets offered the role because they’re right for the part. Simple as. It’s tough, as recently two real heroes of mine have recently turned down the chance to work with Wireless on our acclaimed Springheel series. They were perfect fits for the material and you see that rare thing of a dream part for one of your dream actors, hope for the best, cross your fingers, ride your luck… and it doesn’t quite happen, often because of scheduling. However, you just have to say, ‘it’s always for a reason, and you have to remember that’, and when you look back on what happened, rather than what could have been, it always worked out for the best. I cannot wait for what Wireless Theatre and Mariele ends up sending my way next time.

We Are The BBC, starring Adam Hall, Andrew MacBean, Sue Casanove, Nick Lucas and Stephen Fry will be available to download from www.wirelesstheatrecompany.co.uk later in 2012.

It is written by Sue Casanove, directed by Jack Bowman and produced by Mariele Runacre Temple for the Wireless Theatre Company.