The Stage

Dundee Rep gains five CATS

Published Thursday 10 June 2004 at 13:40

Dundee Rep has triumphed at the second Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland receiving five out of the ten prizes, including three for Scenes from an Execution, with best male performance for John Bett as Urgentino, best director for Dominic Hill and best theatre production.

Tom Piper took the award for best design for a production of Twelfth Night directed by James Brining, while Paddy Cunneen picked up the award for best music.

Artistic director Dominic Hill said: “What we are doing right is very simple. When James Brining and I were appointed a year ago, we said what we wanted to produce was challenging work of the highest quality. That meant working with the best people we could in the business, not just with the actors who are very talented, but with designers, lighting designers, composers and playwrights who were the best around.

“If you give your audience something that is exciting and classy and theatrical, they will respond and that is definitely what I thought about Scenes. A lot of people said they thought it would be a difficult play to stage but the response was fantastic from the ordinary theatregoers.”

CATS 2004 was open to any professional theatre work produced in Scotland in the year from May to April. Of the 146 shows considered, 70 were new plays and ten, not including pantomime, were shows for children.

During the ceremony in Stirling, Cait Davies received the prize for best female performance for her portrayal of The Woman in Grid Iron’s site specific work, Those Eyes, That Mouth, while best ensemble went to an Edinburgh-based company - the cast of the Royal Lyceum’s production of Six Black Candles.

The best new play award went to Henry Adam for The People Next Door, written for the Traverse theatre in Edinburgh. However it was Glasgow’s Citizens’ Theatre, with its production of Smoking With Lulu, which won the award for best technical presentation. Best children’s play was won by Wee Stories, for their production of Arthur, the Story of a King, produced by the Scottish Touring Consortium.