The Stage

Black Watch wins Stage Award for Acting Excellence

Published Tuesday 29 August 2006 at 15:20 by Liz Thomas

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Traverse Theatre’s Black Watch, the much-lauded play based on young soldiers serving with the regiment in Iraq, has won a Stage Award for Acting Excellence, helping the venue to two accolades this year.

The National Theatre of Scotland show, which is already being lined up for a screen adaptation, picked up the award for Best Ensemble. Former Perrier winner Daniel Kitson scooped Best Solo Show for C-90, at the Traverse, beating Tim Healy, David Benson, Lizzie Roper and Josephine Taylor. It’s the first time this category has been included. It was created to recognise the increasing number of such productions at the festival and the additional skills they require of the performer.

Phil Nichol, who won the if.comeddies this year, lost out in the Best Actor category to Paul Sparks for his performance in Finer Noble Gases at the Bongo Club.

The award for Best Actress went to Caroline O’Connor for End of the Rainbow, which was at the Assembly Rooms.

Catherine Comerford, Managing Director of The Stage said “I congratulate all the winners for their outstanding contribution to the success of this year’s fringe. I was especially pleased that one of our previous year’s nominees for best actress, Caroline O’Connor, this year won the award.”

The Stage Awards, now in their 12th year, aim to recognise outstanding theatre performances by individuals and companies on the fringe. Nominees are selected from more than 300 productions covered by the reviews team during the festival and the winners were selected by principle reviewers Jeremy Austin, Gerald Berkowitz, Thom Dibdin, Duska Radosavljevic, Nick Awde and William McEvoy.