British Theatre Guide Blog

We’ve had the results of the TMA Awards and the nominations for the Manchester Evening News Awards and the Evening Standard Awards with, still to come, the Oliviers, the Critics’ Circle Awards, the Whatsonstage Theatregoers’ Choice Awards and the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS).

The Evening Standard, Theatregoers’ Choice, Oliviers and Critics’ Circle awards all concentrate on theatre in London, while the MEN Awards concentrate on Greater Manchester and CATS on Scotland, leaving just the TMA Awards to cover the entire UK.

Of course London is of huge importance but it isn’t necessarily the place where you are going to see the best theatre, as distinct from music theatre.    In fact, if you look at the number of plays which were nominated in any category in the Evening Standard “long list”, the West End only appears four times, and two of those were transfers from outside of London.  In fact, nine nominations went to productions which had originated outside of London.  Otherwise nominations went to a very limited range of theatres: the National (8, including one import), Donmar (and Donmar West End) (7), Almeida (5), Old Vic (3), Globe (2), Royal Court (1) and Young Vic (1).

I haven’t mentioned the Barbican, although one of its shows gained two nominations, but that was the National Theatre of Scotland’s Black Watch, another import. Not did I mention the Roundhouse which was home to the RSC in the year in question.  And Kneehigh’s Brief Encounter, which garnered two nominations, actually played in a coverted cinema.

So what’s my point?  Quite simply that three of the most influential awards - Olivier, Critics’ Circle, Evening Standard - focus on just a tiny proportion of the theatre being produced in the UK: theatre seen in London.  It could be argued, I suppose, that if a production is really good, it will eventually find its way to London, but that isn’t necessarily the case.  Of the London theatres which we mention above, only the National, the Young Vic and the Barbican present “imports”, and they are only a very small part of the National’s programme - inevitably.

So no, it is not true that if a production is any good it will get to London, at least not in the leading playhouses or the West End.  This would not matter - not really - except there is a general public perception that if a production isn’t seen in London, then it can’t be of a high enough standard, and that is manifestly not true.

As a North East patriot, I was delighted that Live Theatre’s The Pitmen Painters won the TMA Award for best play and has been nominated for an Evening Standard Award in the same category.  I should not be surprised if it is nominated in other awards too, but had it not been picked up by the National Theatre, it could never have won anything more than a TMA Award.  It’s an excellent play and an excellent production, but Live has produced others equally as good in the past, as has Northern Stage, and so have theatres like Manchester’s Royal Exchange and Nottingham’s Playhouse - and many others throughout the country.

Fascinating though the awards season may be and wonderful though it may be to be honoured, it does present a very skewed vision of theatre in the UK!