It’s that time of year again… here’s View From the Circle’s Top Ten shows of 2019.
NEWS: Acting honours go to Andrew Scott & Maggie Smith at 2019 Evening Standard Theatre Awards while Sweat wins Best Play
Acting honours go to Andrew Scott & Maggie Smith at the 2019 Evening Standard Theatre Awards while Sweat wins Best Play.
NEWS: 2019 Evening Standard Theatre Awards shortlists announced, female playwrights dominate
Shortlists have been announced for the 65th annual Evening Standard Theatre Awards ceremony, which will take place on Sunday 24 November 2019 at the London Coliseum.
NEWS: The 2019 winners of The Stage Debut Awards are announced
The 2019 winners of The Stage Debut Awards, in association with Access Entertainment, were announced in a ceremony which took place at The Brewery, London this weekend.
Text of the Day: Sweat
Random and topical thoughts and quotes gathered by My Theatre Mates contributor Aleks Sierz, first published on www.sierz.co.uk.
‘An absolute marvel’: SWEAT – West End
I really can’t recommend Sweat highly enough. It’s not just a great play, and a great production, it’s an actually important one.
‘Not only makes you perspire, but also cry’: SWEAT – West End
Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning drama Sweat vigorously massages the wounded heart of rustbelt America.
NEWS: Clare Perkins & Leanne Best return for Sweat’s West End transfer, Further casting
Further West End casting has been announced for the Donmar Warehouse’s transfer of Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning and Olivier-nominated play Sweat.
NEWS: Donmar Warehouse’s production of Sweat by Lynn Nottage extends run
The Donmar Warehouse today announces the extension, due to exceptional demand, for Lynette Linton’s acclaimed production of Sweat by Lynn Nottage. The production will now be booking for performances until Saturday 2 February 2019.
Can we move beyond gender-swapping roles on stage & write better characters for women?
A theatre announces that a classic male role will be played by a woman and gets a plethora of headlines as a result. While giving a woman a meaty, lead role is something to be applauded, it exposes the shortcomings in onstage equality in theatreland. Gender swapping characters isn’t fresh, new and exciting, it’s starting to feel overused, calculated and like lip-service.
‘Complex, urgent & moving’: SWEAT – Donmar Warehouse ★★★★★
If you want to understand why working-class Americans voted for Donald Trump or even why people in Sunderland voted for Brexit then look no further than Lynn Nottage’s complex, urgent and moving play new play, Sweat.
‘A beautiful piece of writing’: SWEAT – Donmar Warehouse
Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat comes to London for the first time, examining the personal and local consequences of a firm’s strategic decision to change the way it operates and revealing the void it leaves behind.
‘Will keep you thinking long after you’ve left the theatre’: SWEAT – Donmar Warehouse ★★★★★
Seven years ago playwright Lynn Nottage started spending time in Reading, Pennsylvania, one of the poorest towns in America and wrote Sweat based on her experiences there.
NEWS: Martha Plimpton will star in the UK premiere of Lynn Nottage’s play Sweat at the Donmar Warehouse
The Donmar Warehouse has announced full casting for Lynette Linton’s production of Sweat by Lynn Nottage (7 December 2018 to 26 January 2019, press night is 19 December). The line-up includes Martha Plimpton, Leanne Best, Patrick Gibson, Osy Ikhile, Wil Johnson, Stuart McQuarrie, Clare Perkins, Sule Rimi and Sebastian Viveros.
NEWS: Two new productions are announced as part of Josie Rourke’s final season at the Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse’s outgoing artistic director Josie Rourke has announced today two new productions as part of her final season, both with rising directorial talents at the helm.
Tanya Moodie: Female playwrights ‘light candles in gale winds’
The speeches at this year’s Susan Smith Blackburn Prize ceremony were inspiring – in particular, the speech made by actor and judge Tanya Moodie, whose many credits (coincidentally) include Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage at Theatre Royal Bath and the Park Theatre, and Joanne, the monologue written by numerous female playwrights, at Soho Theatre, for which she’s just been nominated for Best Solo Performance in My Theatre Mates’ #AlsoRecognised Awards.
NEWS: Sweat by Lynn Nottage wins £25k Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
The 2016 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has been awarded to U.S. playwright Lynn Nottage (pictured above) for her play Sweat, a searing drama about the ravages of America’s industrial decline. The announcement was made at the National Theatre in London on Monday 22 February, as the transatlantic theatre community gathered to honour Ms. Nottage and nine finalists for the annually awarded prize …