CityLife

MEN Awards honour for Pete Postlethwaite

Pete Postlethwaite

Following last week’s announcement of the nominees for the Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards, we’re pleased to announce that, in honour of the late and much-loved actor Pete Postlethwaite, the Best New Play category will now be known as The Pete Postlethwaite Award for Best New Play.

Pete was a great supporter of the Awards and also of new writing, as well as playing roles in classics like King Lear, The Tempest and The Homecoming, for which he won a Theatre Award.

In fact, that success leads to a story about Pete that pretty much sums up his attitude to work and life. His award had been voted for by readers and so he wasn’t even aware he was a nominee when he showed up for the glitzy ceremony one December a few years back.

So I was a bit anxious when, just before the ceremony was due to begin, there was no sign of him amidst the great and good of national and local theatre, all sipping free champagne and speculating animatedly about who had won.

With the help of the nearly-as-perturbed Royal Exchange press officer of the day, Pete was eventually tracked down, contentedly sipping a pint of Guinness as far away from the hubbub as possible but happy to chat, as if we'd just bumped into him at, say, Mr. Thomas’s Chop House. Later on, I announced the award from the stage and when I do so – Yikes! – there’s no sign of Pete.

As it turns out, not expecting to win the Performance Of The Year Award, he was away from his seat chatting to one of his many friends in the room at that very moment.

When, after being alerted by amused people around him,  he eventually made it on to the stage, he blithely asked me,  “What’s this for, Kev?”. Gales of laughter and applause ensued  but it was typical of the man – humble to a fault. Then he gave a brilliant acceptance speech off the cuff.

He took his art seriously but never himself. He’ll be sadly missed but would have been pleased to have an award named after him, especially the one for Best New Play.

Speaking of which, we’re happy to clarify that the wonderful Feelgood Theatre production nominated in that category and for Best Newcomer, which, in our excitement, we  inadvertently shortened to  Slave should properly be called Slave – A Question Of Freedom.

The brilliant Morecambe show starring Best Actor In A Visiting Production nominee Bob Golding was also at the Met in Bury, and Michael Ball actually donned a frock and wig for Hairspray at the Opera House.