December 22, 2007

Across the Tassie

cameron rhodes               posted 22 Dec 2007, 02:22 PM / edited 25 Dec 2007, 08:39 PM

2007 Sydney Theatre Awards. from Sydney Morning Herald :

“…Company B, has swept the pool. It is a major triumph for Sydney’s second theatre company, which returned to its revamped Belvoir Street Theatre this year. Company B received all but one of the nominations in the Best Mainstage Production category, and is likely to take out the award.

Exit the King starring Geoffrey Rush, Michael Gow’s new play Toy Symphony and a popular revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf were all nominated, together with Bell Shakespeare’s The Government Inspector.

Two of the four nominations for Best Direction were also Company B productions. Director Benedict Andrews was nominated twice, once for Virginia Woolf and once for the STC’s revival of Patrick White’s play Season at Sarsparilla. It was the STC’s only nomination in the main categories. The other nominees were Neil Armfield for Toy Symphony and John Bell for The Government Inspector.

Andrew Upton’s new play Riflemind was absent from the Best Australian Play category. The four nominees were: Katherine Thompson’s King Tide, Ian Wilding’s October (both produced by Griffin Theatre) Toy Symphony (produced by Company B) and The Seed (produced by B Sharp).

The Best Actor awards exactly mirror the Best Mainstage production, with Marton Csokas nominated for Virginia Woolf, Darren Gilshenan for The Government Inspector, Richard Roxburgh for Toy Symphony and Geoffrey Rush for Exit the King. The Best Actress nominees are Catherine McClements (Virginia Woolf) Kate Mulvany (The Seed), Leah Purcell (Griffin’s The Story of the Miracle at Cookie’s Table) and Toni Scanlan (King Tide).

The one chance for STC to make up some ground is in the musical theatre awards. The company’s sell-out production of Puttnam County Spelling Bee, received nominations for Best Production, Best Actress (Magda Szubanski) and Best Actor (Tyler Coppin). But even here it is up against stiff competition from Billy Elliot, which is also nominated in all three categories. Genevieve Lemon is nominated for Best Actress. It has two nominations for Best Actor, Justin Smith and all the four Billys together.”    from SMH 22 Dec