Mark Ludmon takes a look at all the winners from the Manchester Theatre Awards 2018
Oldham Coliseum’s staging of Florian Zeller’s drama The Father has won the title of best production along with best leading actor for Kenneth Alan Taylor in the Manchester Theatre Awards.
The north-west premiere of the play, translated by Christopher Hampton and directed by Kevin Shaw, was among a number of home-grown productions to receive accolades at today’s ceremony at The Lowry in Salford alongside touring shows.
Janet Suzman was named best actress in a leading role for the revival of Martin Sherman’s one-woman show Rose at Home. Both awards for supporting roles also went to productions at Home: Katie West for Uncle Vanya and Andrew Sheridan in the UK tour of Duncan Macmillan’s People, Places and Things.
Paul Auster’s City of Glass, adapted by Duncan Macmillan and premiered at the Lyric Hammersmith in London, racked up another award for Home, taking the title of best design for the work of set designer Jenny Melville and video designer Lysander Ashton.
Scott Hunter was named newcomer of the year for Yank!, the musical about a gay romance against the backdrop of World War Two, which ran at Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre and Charing Cross Theatre in London.
Man on the Moon by Keisha Thompson, for Sustained Theatre Up North and Contact Theatre, won the title of best studio production, while Rhodri Meilir received the award for best performance in a studio production in Alan Harris’s How My Light Is Spent at the Royal Exchange.
Declan Greene’s Moth from Ransack Theatre at Hope Mill Theatre was named best fringe production, while the award for best performance in a fringe production went to Alexandra Maxwell in Alex Keelan’s The Loves of Others and Anna Jordan’s Freak at 53two for Greater Manchester Fringe.
Another Greater Manchester Fringe production, Narcissist in the Mirror by Rosie Fleeshman at The King’s Arms in Salford, won the overall title of best new play.
English Touring Theatre’s revival of Conor McPherson’s The Weir won the Target Live Award for a Visiting Production after stopping off at Oldham Coliseum.
Sheridan Smith was named best actress in a Visiting Production for the Menier Chocolate Factory’s production of Funny Girl which came to the Palace Theatre.
Also at the Palace, Danny Mac won the title of best actor in a visiting production for the tour of Sunset Boulevard from Curve in Leicester. The show also won the overall award for best musical.
A new staging of Aeschylus’s The Suppliant Women earned the award for best ensemble, created by Actors Touring Company with the Royal Lyceum Edinburgh and the Royal Exchange.
The ceremony ended with special achievement awards for Anne Hornsby, director of audio description specialist Mind’s Eye, and Barrie Rutter, the founder and outgoing artistic director of leading theatre company Northern Broadsides.
See below for a full list of the winners:
Best Production
The Father, Oldham Coliseum
Best New Play
Narcissist in the Mirror by Rosie Fleeshman, The King’s Arms / Greater Manchester Fringe
Best Musical
Sunset Boulevard (Curve, Leicester), Palace Theatre
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Janet Suzman, Rose, Home
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Kenneth Alan Taylor, The Father, Oldham Coliseum
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Katie West, Uncle Vanya, Home
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Andrew Sheridan, People, Places and Things, Home
Best Ensemble
The Suppliant Women (Actors Touring Company, Royal Exchange & Royal Lyceum), Royal Exchange
Newcomer of the Year
Scott Hunter, Yank!, Hope Mill Theatre
Best Studio Production
Man on the Moon (Stun), Contact Theatre
Best Performance in a Studio Production
Rhodri Meilir, How My Light Is Spent, Royal Exchange
Best Fringe Production
Moth (Ransack Theatre), Hope Mill Theatre
Best Performance in a Fringe Production
Alexandra Maxwell, The Loves of Others / Freak, Greater Manchester Fringe
Target Live Award for a Visiting Production
The Weir (English Touring Theatre), Oldham Coliseum
Best Actress in a Visiting Production
Sheridan Smith, Funny Girl (Menier Chocolate Factory), Palace Theatre
Best Actor in a Visiting Production
Danny Mac, Sunset Boulevard (Curve, Leicester), Palace Theatre
Best Design
Jenny Melville (set) & Lysander Ashton (video), Paul Auster’s City of Glass, Home
Award for Special Entertainment
Dick Whittington (Qdos), Opera House
Phil Radcliffe Award for Opera
The Snow Maiden (Opera North), The Lowry
Robert Robson Award for Dance
Song of the Earth & La Sylphide (English National Ballet), Palace Theatre
Special Achievement Award
Anne Hornsby
Barrie Rutter
Youth Panel Award Winner
Singin’ in the Rain, RNCM Young Company
