Fact-based theatre makes an impact at Stage awards

Published Tuesday 26 August 2008 at 11:45 by Alistair Smith

Full coverage of the Edinburgh Festivals

Verbatim and fact-based theatre has dominated this year’s Stage Awards for Acting Excellence at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with performers from Deep Cut, Motherland and The Tailor of Inverness all recognised.

The three productions all deal with the real-life effects of war and draw on accounts from people directly involved in the action. Deep Cut recounts the investigation into the deaths of four trainee soldiers at Deepcut Barracks, Motherland tells the story of the women left behind in the UK when their sons, husbands and brothers go off to fight in Iraq, while The Tailor of Inverness is a one-man show about the performer’s father emigrating from Poland to Scotland after the Second World War.

Ciaran McIntyre and Rhian Blythe picked up the Best Actor and Best Actress Awards for their performances in Deep Cut, Matthew Zajac received Best Solo Performer for The Tailor of Inverness and the cast of Motherland - Rachel Adamson, Charlotte Binns, Eleanor Clarke and Helen Embleton - was awarded Best Ensemble.

Stage Awards judge Duska Radosavljevic said: “This year, we’ve noted the ever-growing impact of fact-based theatre, which has certainly invigorated and diversified the scope of our discussions on the subject of acting and performance. There has also been a proliferation of ensemble work and solo shows, as opposed to conventional character-based drama. Also, the number of predominately female ensembles this year offers an excellent answer to the question we have faced repeatedly over the years of ‘Where is the good work for actresses?’”

For more on the awards, see this week’s print edition of The Stage.

The awards in full:

• Best Actor - Ciaran McIntyre for Deep Cut (Traverse) [review]
• Best Actress - Rhian Blythe for Deep Cut (Traverse) [review]
• Best Ensemble - Live Theatre (Rachel Adamson, Charlotte Binns, Eleanor Clarke and Helen Embleton) for Motherland (Underbelly) [review]
• Best Solo Performer -
• Matthew Zajac for The Tailor of Inverness (Assembly @ George Street) [review]