Empty Space…Peter Brook Awards praise Paines Plough ensemble

Published Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 14:50 by Alistair Smith

Paines Plough has won the inaugural ensemble prize at this year’s Empty Space…Peter Brook Awards.

The new category, which is sponsored by Equity and gives prize money of £2,000, was presented to the new writing organisation in recognition of its work with the Traverse and Hampstead theatres setting up a company of actors to work with playwright Mark Ravenhill and produce a series of shows at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival and later in London.

Ravenhill explained that an ensemble was something he “hanker[ed] for as a writer”. He said: “In some better-funded world, there be would be a number of companies of actors, which playwrights could work with.”

Meanwhile, West End producer Thelma Holt, presenting the award, stressed the importance of ensemble theatre and complained that young actors were no longer given the “grounding” of working in a company.

She added: “We have a major problem with ensemble theatre - because there aren’t enough places that do it.”

Meanwhile, the Drum Theatre in Plymouth won the studio theatre prize and the Young Vic was recognised in the up and coming category for its new studio spaces.

The Drum’s artistic director Simon Stokes commented: “It is, of course, wonderfully gratifying for the Drum Theatre to have received this prestigious Studio Theatre Award, and against stiff competition from two well established London theatres [The Finborough and the Orange Tree], too.

“It shows the Drum as a very forward-looking theatre and Plymouth as a very forward-looking city, and I hope many more people will be tempted to try an adventurous night out in the alternative space to the Theatre Royal, Plymouth.”

The Dan Crawford Pub Theatre Award was presented to The Bush and the Mark Marvin Rent Subsidy Award was given to How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found by Fin Kennedy, which also won the John Whiting Award last year.