CATS Awards: A Call to Applause Not ‘Aux Armes’ at Glasgow Citizens!

In a particularly warm and buoyant atmosphere, the cream of Scottish theatre was honoured in fine style at the annual Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) Awards ceremony on Sunday 08 June 2014.

Among the accolades, Best Female Performance went to the wonderful Blythe Duff for the second year running for her stunning bespoke role in David Harrower’s Ciara. The play itself won Best Play but sadly neither Harrower nor Duff was able to collect the awards personally because of other commitments but Traverse Artistic Director Orla O’Laughlin bravely stood in on their behalf.

Dominic Hill is looking like a CATS regular as he picked up his fourth Best Director Award, this time for Crime and Punishment, a play that deservedly picked up three other awards - Best Ensemble, Best Male Performance from Adam Best as Raskolnikov and the new Billy Award to Jessica Hardwick as Sonya.

The 2014 CATS Awards ceremony took a slightly different turn from previous years with the first-ever Billy Award. This initiative comes from John Byrne who is sponsoring it in memory of Scottish actor Billy McColl who died earlier this year. McColl was the first and definitive Phil McCann in Byrne’s landmark play, The Slab Boys, and the award is designed to recognise a young actor who has made a memorable impact on Scottish theatre in the past year.

From the shortlist of Ncuti Gatwa for his work at Dundee Rep Ensemble, and Scott Reid, who gave an outstanding performance in Johnny McKnight's recent play A Perfect Stroke, the winner was Royal Conservatoire of Scotland graduate Jessica Hardwick, who gave superb performances as Sonya in Crime And Punishment, and as Christine in the Citizens' recent production of Miss Julie. It was a joy to have the ever stylish Byrne appearing at CATS two years on the trot to present this new and innovative award.

This year’s guest presenter was Glasgow’s own star of stage and screen Bill Paterson, who cut his theatrical teeth at the Citizen’s in its1967 production of the Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui going on to star in many productions including John Byrne’s first play, Writer’s Cramp. And a fine job he did! Modest, polite and funny, his discreet presence gently oiled the wheels of the day.

Kicking off with this year’s CATS Whiskers Award that this year went to The Imaginate Festival, for championing theatre for young people for the last 25 years, presenter Mark Brown of The Sunday Herald and The Daily Telegraph said:

"[Imaginate] has brought the finest international work to Scotland and provided Scottish work with the best possible platform. The benefits both to young audiences and Scotland's children's theatre practitioners are immeasurable.

"… the leadership of its director Tony Reekie, Imaginate has played a crucial role as a commissioner of and advocate for children's theatre in this country. It is, quite simply, impossible to conceive of the existing children's theatre sector in Scotland without Imaginate."

As ever the CATS Awards confirm the rude health of Scottish theatre – and long may it continue! As CATS Co-convenor Joyce McMillan says “This year has once again seen some magnificent theatre produced in Scotland, from work created specially for children and young people, to innovative versions of classic texts and ground-breaking new plays,”
CATS' co-convenor Mark Fisher added “The continuing vibrancy of Scottish theatre and especially the quality of new writing is something that we are particularly pleased to celebrate. [the] 127 plays that were eligible for the Best New Play Award this year … attest to the phenomenal creativity that is thriving in Scotland.”

And so say all of us! Here’s to an exciting 2014 and beyond.

The CATS judging panel for 2014 was made up of: Mary Brennan (The Herald), Anna Burnside (freelance), Irene Brown (edinburghguide.com), Mark Brown (The Sunday Herald and the Daily Telegraph), Neil Cooper (The Herald), Michael Cox (Across the Arts), Thom Dibdin (The Stage and AllEdinburghTheatre.com), Mark Fisher (The Guardian), Joyce McMillan (The Scotsman), Allan Radcliffe (The Times), Amy Taylor (The Public Reviews and TVBomb), Gareth K Vile (The List) and Joy Watters (Across the Arts).

The 2014 Winners are:

BEST MALE PERFORMANCE:
Adam Best (Raskolnikov), Crime and Punishment, Citizens Theatre, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

“Dostoevsky’s alienated student who commits murder for ideological reasons and then battles it out with the authorities and his own conscience is as complex and unpredictable a character as Hamlet or Iago. Adam Best captured this anti-hero's startling mix of rage and compassion with an epic performance, the linchpin of a fine ensemble.

BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE sponsored by STV:
Blythe Duff (Ciara), Ciara, Traverse Theatre Company and Datum Point Productions

“Blythe Duff makes the perfect Ciara. Alone onstage for the full length of the play, Duff's intense presence delivers David Harrrower's exquisite text with the full light and shade required to make Orla O'Loughlin's production so powerful. Who says lightning doesn't strike twice, as Duff, for so long a familiar face from TV, proves herself once again to be a consummate stage actress, and thoroughly deserving to be named as CATS best actress of the year.”

BEST ENSEMBLE sponsored by Equity:
Crime and Punishment, Citizens Theatre, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

"There has been plenty of wonderful ensemble work in Scottish theatre this year, but nothing more dazzling than the achievement of the ten-strong cast of Crime and Punishment. In a show full of strong individual performances, the cast also worked superbly together to provide the soundscape, the sense of street life, and the thrilling choral music that captured vital social and moral dimensions of Dostoevsky's great story, and were central to the success of an outstanding adaptation and production."

BEST DIRECTOR:
Dominic Hill, Crime and Punishment, Citizens Theatre, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

“Hill's direction was exceptional. He created a production that delivered for its chosen space and audience. Hill distilled a great story into an easily comprehensible and hugely watchable narrative, which was always compelling to watch, yet found and exposed its hidden depths. He brought a succession of vibrant performances out of a cast of actor-musicians whose constant presence on stage ensured that the whole production zinged by.”

BEST DESIGN:
Christopher Doyle and Shiona McCubbin (cinematographers), Mike Brookes (lighting designer) and Stewart Laing, Nick Millar, Robbie Thomson and Jack Wrigley (designers), Paul Bright's Confessions of a Justified Sinner, Untitled Projects in co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland, Tramway and Summerhall

“A unique combination of film, still photography, eclectic exhibits, documentation, interviews and sculpture created the elaborate re-imagining of one man’s radical theatrical vision that is Paul Bright's Confessions of a Justified Sinner.”

BEST MUSIC AND SOUND
James Fortune and the band, Mark Melville and Andrew Kirkby, The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler, Vanishing Point and the National Theatre of Scotland presented in association with Eden Court

James Fortune and the band not only orchestrated Ivor Cutler's minimal songs into complex arrangements, they were involved in shaping the play's characterisation of this remarkable musician. Whether finding the hidden klezmer or rocking a samba, the music drove the celebratory, playful energy of this Beautiful Cosmos.

BEST TECHNICAL PRESENTATION sponsored by Northern Light:
Dragon, Vox Motus, National Theatre of Scotland and the Tianjin People's Art Theatre, China

“Dragon's visual fireworks were made possible by impeccable technical support: if everything did come together perfectly, at exactly the right moment, then the show would simply not have worked.”

BEST PRODUCTION FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE:
Huff, Shona Reppe and Andy Manley, produced by Catherine Wheels Theatre Company

“Huff took that old, familiar cautionary tale of The Three Little Pigs and wove it into a walk-round installation where each room allowed youngsters to make a hands-on discovery of the story for themselves. Scary, funny, brilliantly inventive – and a ground-breaking world away from the sit-look-listen format of conventional theatre.”

BEST NEW PLAY sponsored by Robertson Taylor W&P Longreach – Theatre Insurance Brokers:
David Harrower, Ciara, Traverse Theatre Company and Datum Point Productions

“Ciara wasn’t just a fitting theatrical celebration of the Traverse’s 50th anniversary but also a showcase for Scottish writing at its best: a localised love letter to Scotland (particularly Glasgow) with rich language, a captivating plot and an equal balance of the dramatic and the comedic. David Harrower’s one-act monologue is compelling, beautiful and grotesque in equal measures while introducing audiences to an unforgettable character.”

BEST PRODUCTION:
Crime and Punishment, Citizens Theatre, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

“Against formidable competition, Crime and Punishment was the production the judges returned to again and again. There was the inspired adaptation by Chris Hannan which gave dramatic shape to a complex novel. There was the thrilling central performance by Adam Best as a Hamlet-like Raskolnikov, supported by a vigorous ten-strong ensemble. There was the excellent percussive score by Nikola Kodjabashia, the stripped-back set by Colin Richmond and bold lighting by Chris Davey. And all of this was marshalled with intelligence, flair and tremendous attention to detail by director Dominic Hill to create a consummate piece of theatre.”