MEN Theatre Awards 2009: A Rockin' good day out
THE Royal Exchange’s Punk Rock stole the show at the Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards, netting four major prizes.
The unsettling drama about a student who goes on the rampage at a fictional fee-paying school in Stockport was declared best production and best new play, with the star of the play Tom Sturridge crowned best newcomer and Punk Rock’s Jessica Raine declared best actress in a supporting role.
The play was inspired by resonances of the Columbine High School massacre in the USA and, writer Stockport-born Simon Stephens said, examines the “difficulties and pressures and existential mess of being a sixth former”.
Though Stephens stresses, somewhat unnecessarily, that the play was “not totally autobiographical” of his days at Stockport School.
“This means an immense amount to me,” he said, collecting the best new play award. “This is a play that was carved in Manchester. It was made up out of growing up in Manchester.
“That it was received so fondly by the city means a lot . It’s testimony to the play’s brilliant director, the magnificent Sarah Frankcom and the great company we were fortunate to have to work with, young people with such talent."
Collecting the best production award for Punk Rock, Frankcom said “17,500 saw this play in Manchester and I would like to dedicate this to Manchester audiences. They support new work and new playwriting, and that is borne out by this afternoon. They really got behind this play, particularly audiences under 26.”
Breathless
Punk Rock is further evidence that Stephens is a leading talent in British drama. Now 38, he was brought up in Stockport, where his mother Carole Lee and grandmother Georgina Porter still live. He was first inspired by the TV drama of the 1980s, such names as Dennis Potter and Alan Bleasdale.
Now a father of three living in London, Stephens is a playwright with a keen work ethic. He has five new plays he has written or co-written all nearing completion, including one about the possible end of the universe, and another inspired by the dark forboding of Wastwater in the Lake District.
Stars of stage and screen flocked to the Midland Hotel for the MEN Theatre Awards, one of the glitziest and most respected of annual showbiz events.
Last year’s surprise guest Bob Hoskins told the crowd that, of all the hundreds of award shows he’s been to in his career, the MEN Theatre Awards was “the Guv’nor”!
The event, hosted this year by broadcaster Dianne Oxberry, is now in its 28th year and previous winners have ranged from Peter Kay to Sir Ian McKellen, and from adult puppet shows to serious dramas.
The most breathless acceptance speech at the 2009 event came from Vanessa Kirby, recipient of the Biza Award – £5,000 given to an up and coming actor, company or initiative.
“I am shaking,” said Vanessa, who knew only that she had been nominated, but had missed out on the best newcomer award for her part in Bolton Octagon’s All My Sons. “I did not even know there was an award for this!”
Luvvie acceptance speech
Most amusing threat of the afternoon was issued by Aled Jones, presenting the award for best musical to Mary Poppins at the Palace.
“Don’t look so worried. I’m not going to sing Walking In The Air,” he said, answering the audience’s groans with the sinister rejoinder “...but I still can.”
Dramatist John Godber told the assembled company: “It’s great to be at an awards ceremony where everybody sounds northern.”
All things are relative though, as Tim Healy – best actor for Looking For Buddy at the Octagon – literally tripped on stage to declare, in fine Geordie style: “It’s nice to be at an awards ceremony where everyone sounds like they are from the south.”
Best luvvie acceptance speech came from Roger Haines, Horniman Award winner for his long association with Manchester’s Library Theatre.
“Darlings, I love the theatre. I’ve loved it all my life,” he told the assembled thesps.
Visit the link on the right for a full list of the winners.
Published: Wed, 09 December, 2009
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