Typically then, it was Let There Be that won the Audience Award! I am clearly well out of touch, hehe but congratulations to all involved, and I will be interested to see how it develops into a fuller piece of theatre. And it was interesting to see how my reactions to the other shows had adjusted on second, or in some cases, third viewing. Rebecca A Fielding’s Bound engaged me a lot more this time round and surprisingly for me, I found Beatrice Armstrong’s Alternative Therapy a little bit moving, knowing in advance the sadness that lay at the heart of it.
Ultimately, my winners would have been between Louise Taylor’s Two Rings – a play I loved from the first time we heard it as one of our Blogger’s Panel choices – and Mark Wright’s Looking For Vi. I felt there was so much potential for Two Rings, the poignancy of a relationship growing between these two women with their unlikely connection but only one of them having the opportunity to actually remember it as Alzheimer’s weaves its destructive course. And Looking For Vi felt like the most complete work over the festival, Julia St John’s assured direction striking quickly to the heart of the story, the characters and their motivations, making us laugh, ache and cry and really care about it all: of course there was an added bite to the bittersweet ending with the recent news of Betty Driver’s passing. I was extremely pleased to see that it won the acting award from the panel.
All in all, I have to say that I found the Off Cut Festival to be a highly enjoyable experience throughout all my interactions with it. Initiatives that support the new in any field are to be commended, especially in this economic climate and just looking at the numbers indicates how much of a valuable resource Off Cut has made itself: twenty-eight writers, twenty-eight directors and seventy-five actors were all able to showcase their skills in front of audiences, make further connections within the industry and work within such a supportive atmosphere. My hat goes off to In Company Theatre for nurturing this festival – both in terms of how the creatives can benefit from it and also in recognising the importance of the opinions of the audience. Critics and reviewers are all very well but audiences are just as vital, if not more so, and thus engaging them in this way should ensure that the theatre that they are producing, is the theatre that people want to see.
The winnersAudience award – Let There Be
Acting award – Looking for Vi
Writing award – Bound
Directing award – The Wrong Tree
The finalists
The Craft by Andrew Biss, directed by Lydia Parker
They F*** You Up, Your Mum and Dad by Michael O’Hanlon, directed by Luisa Hinchliff
Two Rings by Louise Taylor, directed by Michael Wilding
Let There Be by Tanja Mariadoss, directed by Kate Bannister
The Wrong Tree by Wally Sewell, directed by Brigid Lohrey
Bound by Rebecca A Fielding, directed by Francesca Camozzi
Alternative Therapy by Beatrice Armstrong, directed by Dawn Kalani Cowle
Looking for Vi by Mark Wright, directed by Julia St John