The Stage

Industry honoured at 50th Evening Standard Theatre Awards

Published Tuesday 14 December 2004 at 14:00 by Ruth Gillespie

Judi Dench, Harold Pinter and the National Theatre have each been honoured with special accolades to mark the 50th Evening Standard Theatre Awards during a ceremony at the South Bank venue.

Belfast-based dramatist Owen McCafferty was also named as the first recipient of a £30,000 bursary jointly donated by chairman of the awards Lord Rothermere and Anna Wintour, in memory of her father and founder of the awards Charles Wintour, for new playwriting. The Producers won ITV London’s Best Musical while The History Boys took Best Play for Alan Bennett and Best Actor for Richard Griffiths.

Receiving the Special Award to a Performer, Dench told an audience of leading industry figures: “I have only been given this for 40 years of doing a job that I love. I didn’t set out to be an actress but I changed my mind and I couldn’t be more delighted with that decision. I am delighted and thrilled to be given this on the 50th anniversary of the Evening Standard Awards.”

Judges included theatre critics Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard, Georgina Brown, The Mail on Sunday, Susannah Clapp, The Observer, Jane Edwardes, Time Out, Benedict Nightingale, The Times and Paul Taylor, The Independent, with Veronica Wadley, editor of the Evening Standard, chairing the panel.

Said de Jongh: “[These awards] have helped shape the course of English theatrical history during the past 50 years. Judges singled out Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, whose London premiere heralded the arrival of the avant garde, as the most controversial play of 1955. In 1956 John Osborne caused such a stir that he inspired a new award for the Most Promising British Playwright.

“Peter Shaffer, Arnold Wesker, Tom Stoppard and David Hare have followed them. Major playwrights set the tone for theatre and we are proud to be associated with them. Whatever the huge changes in our theatre scene over the past half-century, it remains vibrant, exciting and one of the best reasons for living in London.”

The full list of awards is as follows:

Best Play: The History Boys by Alan Bennett.

Best Actor: Richard Griffiths - The History Boys.

Best Actress: Victoria Hamilton - Suddenly last Summer.

ITV London Best Musical: The Producers.

The Syndey Edwards Awards for Best Director: Rufus Norris - Festen.

Best Design: (set) Ian MacNeil, (lighting) Jean Kalman, (sound) Paul Arditti - Festen.

The Milton Shulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer: Eddie Redmayne - The Goat.

The Charles Wintour Bursary for New Playwriting: Owen McCafferty - Scenes from the Big Picture in 2003.

50th Anniversary Special Awards to a Performer: Dame Judi Dench, to a Playwright: Harold Pinter, to an Institution: The National Theatre.