Irish Times Theatre Awards predictions: Seeing all four Best Production nominees won’t make you any wiser

Best Production nominees: The Lost O'Casey, Grief is the Thing with Feathers, DruidShakespeare: Richard III and How It Is: Part One

One of the perfectly reasonable questions to arise from this year’s Irish Times Theatre Awards nominations for Best Production is: did anyone actually see all these plays? 

The Lost O’Casey, a magnificent co-production by ANU and the Abbey Theatre, sent a neglected Seán O’Casey play through Dublin streets, weaving a tragedy about our era’s vanishing social housing and desperate inhabitants. Despite running for two and a half weeks, each performance had an intimate capacity of four. How It Is: Part One, the first part of Gare St Lazare’s adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s novel, ran for five nights at The Everyman. A narrow window - especially for Dubliners still learning to read a bus schedule. 

The rest of the list was actually difficult to miss. The Cillian Murphy-starring Grief is the Thing with Feathers, an adaptation of Max Porter’s novel given a wild staging by Enda Walsh, ran for nearly three weeks across Galway and Dublin. Both cities also hosted DruidShakespeare: Richard III, given an excellent production by Garry Hynes, running four and a half weeks. 

Chances are that even if you saw all four, you won’t be any closer to predicting what the ITTA judges will decide. On one hand recent winners have been unconventional, cross-genre and arty. Surely that would put the glowingly reviewed The Lost O’Casey in the lead, giving ANU its first Best Production win since Laundry and the Abbey its first since 1998 (really Abbey?). If it has any serious competition, it’s from How It Is: Part One. 

On the other hand the gap between Best Production and Best Director has narrowed in recent years, which would hint that the other two productions have a better chance. A win for DruidShakespeare: Richard III would give Druid it’s third win and Hynes her fourth trophy, breaking the record for Best Director. However Grief is the Thing with Feathers has the surreal turns and hi-tech glamour to charm the aesthetes on the judging panel, and could possibly take Best Production, Best Director, Best Actor and more. 

Sarah Morris is well poised to scoop Best Actress for her stirring performance in The Lost O’Casey. The supporting acting categories are more difficult to predict. Is it even possible to single out Aisling O’Sullivan or Rebecca O’Mara for their hilarious double act in Sonya Kelly’s comedy Furniture? Owen Roe’s fascist-looking Claudius lent a lot to the Gate Theatre’s Hamlet but what about John McCarthy in The Lonesome West at the Everyman, which admittedly I didn’t see - I am one of those Dubliners who can’t read a bus schedule. 

If Grief is the Thing with Feathers doesn’t hog all the design categories, expect Francis O’Connor to win Best Set for his vast dungeon in DruidShakespeare: Richard III, or taking the Best Costume award - which he would share with Doreen McKenna. Kris Stone stands a good chance for her lighting in How It Is: Part One, a production that might also award Mel Mercier Best Sound. 

There’s been some grumbling over the Best Movement Direction category. Introduced two years ago to recognise the body in performance, it has yet to award a single dance work. That might put pressure on giving it to choreographer Eddie Kay for his work on Brokentalkers’ avant-garde play Woman Undone, a nightmarish reimagining of Mary Coughlan’s life. Another newcomer, Best Ensemble, was presumably designed for productions where singling out a lone performance is impossible, but this year includes The Lost O’Casey - whose Sarah Morris is nominated for Best Actress. If last year’s win for Reality:Check Productions is any indication, the judges might prefer to give it to the fresh energetic cast of Rough Magic’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

It’s difficult to see Irish National Opera being denied Best Opera after its knockout inaugural year. The question is whether it will be Enda Walsh’s art-horror staging of Bluebeard’s Castle or Tom Creed’s stylish production of The Tales of Hoffman. 

Best New Play will go to The Lost O’Casey if it doesn’t win Best Production because no one has ever taken both trophies. However, if it does go to The Approach, an absorbing mystery play about three reunited friends, it would let Mark O’Rowe break his three-way tie with Enda Walsh and the late Tom Murphy. 

As for Audience Choice Prize? That will go to Asking for It. 


BEST PRODUCTION
Grief is the Thing with Feathers, a Complicité and Wayward coproduction.
How It Is: Part One, a Gare St Lazare Ireland production
The Lost O’Casey, an ANU and Abbey Theatre production
DruidShakespeare: Richard III, a Druid production
Will win: Grief is the Thing with Feathers

BEST ACTRESS
Maeve Fitzgerald (On Rafferty’s Hill, an Abbey Theatre production)
Hazel Clifford (The Snapper, a Gate Theatre production)
Sarah Morris (The Lost O’Casey, an ANU and Abbey Theatre coproduction)
Lauren Larkin (Shelter, a Druid production)
Will win: Sarah Morris (The Lost O’Casey)

Cillian Murphy in Grief is the Thing with Feathers. Photo: Colm Hogan

BEST ACTOR
Declan Conlon (Come on Home, an Abbey Theatre production)
Stephen Dillane (How It Is: Part One, a Gare St Lazare Ireland production)
Cillian Murphy (Grief is the Thing with Feathers, a Complicité and Wayward coproduction)
Aaron Monaghan (DruidShakespeare: Richard III, a Druid production)
Will win: Cillian Murphy (Grief is the Thing with Feathers)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS 
Zara Devlin (On Rafferty’s Hill, an Abbey Theatre production)
Aoife Duffin (Hamlet, a Gate Theatre production)
Rebecca O’Mara (Furniture, a Druid production)
Aisling O’Sullivan (Furniture, a Druid production)
Will win: Zara Devlin (On Rafferty’s Hill)

Ruth Negga and Owen Roe in Hamlet.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Peter Coonan (On Rafferty’s Hill, an Abbey Theatre production)
John McCarthy (The Lonesome West, an Everyman production)
Mark Huberman (Shelter, a Druid production)
Owen Roe (Hamlet, a Gate Theatre production)
Will win: Owen Roe (Hamlet)

BEST ENSEMBLE
The Approach, a Landmark production
The Lost O’Casey, an ANU and Abbey Theatre coproduction
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a Rough Magic and Kilkenny Arts Festival coproduction
Thirst (and Other Bits of Flann), an Agro Grimace production
Will win: A Midsummer Night’s Dream 

Francis O'Connor and Doreen McKenna's costuming for DruidShakespeare: Richard III. Photo: Robbie Jack

BEST COSTUME
Katie Davenport (The Tales of Hoffman, an Irish National Opera production)
Francis O’Connor and Doreen McKenna (DruidShakespeare: Richard III, a Druid production)
Andre Barbe (Il Bravo, a Wexford Festival Opera production)
Paul Wills (The Snapper, a Gate Theatre production)
Will win: Francis O’Connor and Doreen McKenna (DruidShakespeare: Richard III)

BEST SET
Susan Hilferty (Hamlet, a Gate Theatre production)
Francis O’Connor (DruidShakespeare: Richard III, a Druid production)
Jamie Vartan and Will Duke (Grief is the Thing with Feathers, a Complicité and Wayward coproduction)
Paul Wills (The Snapper, a Gate Theatre production)
Will win: Jamie Vartan and Will Duke (Grief is the Thing with Feathers) 

Kris Stone's lighting for How It Is: Part One.

BEST LIGHTING 
Aedín Cosgrove (ELIZA’s Adventures in the Uncanny Valley, a Pan Pan production)
Paul Keogan (Hamlet, a Gate Theatre production)
Sarah Jane Shiels (FRNKNSTN, a Theatre Lovett production)
Kris Stone (How It Is: Part One, a Gare St Lazare Ireland production)
Will win: Kris Stone (How It Is: Part One) 

BEST SOUND
Mary Coughlan, Mongoose and Valgeir Sigurdsson (Woman Undone, a Brokentalkers production)
Joe Hunt (The School Days of Thaddeus K, a Blue Raincoat production)
Mel Mercier (How It Is: Part One, a Gare St Lazare Ireland production)
Teho Teardo and Helen Atkinson (Grief is the Thing with Feathers, a Complicité and Wayward coproduction)
Will win: Mel Mercier (How It Is: Part One)

Eddie Kay's movement direction for Woman Undone. Photo: Simone J Rudolphi

BEST MOVEMENT DIRECTION 
Justine Cooper (The Misfits, a Corn Exchange production)
Eddie Kay (Woman Undone, a Brokentalkers production)
Sue Mythen (The Lost O’Casey, an ANU and Abbey Theatre coproduction)
Catherine O’Malley (ELIZA’s Adventures in the Uncanny Valley, a Pan Pan production)
Will win: Eddie Kay (Woman Undone)

BEST DIRECTOR
Garry Hynes (DruidShakespeare: Richard III, a Druid production)
Róisín McBrinn (The Snapper, a Gate Theatre production)
Caitríona McLaughlin (On Rafferty’s Hill, an Abbey Theatre production)
Enda Walsh (Grief is the Thing with Feathers, a Complicité and Wayward coproduction)
Will win: Enda Walsh (Grief is the Thing with Feathers)

Irish National Opera's production of Bluebeard's Castle.

BEST OPERA
Il Bravo, a Wexford Festival Opera production
Dinner at Eight, a Wexford Festival Opera production
Bluebeard’s Castle, an Irish National Opera production
The Tales of Hoffman, an Irish National Opera production
Will win: Bluebeard’s Castle 

BEST NEW PLAY
Mark O’Rowe (The Approach, a Landmark production)
Phillip McMahon (Come on Home, an Abbey Theatre production)
ANU and Abbey Theatre (The Lost O’Casey)
Stephen Jones (Northern Lights, an Awake & Sing and Theatre Upstairs coproduction)
Will win: ANU and Abbey Theatre (The Lost O’Casey) 


The 22nd Irish Times Theatre Awards will take place at the National Concert Hall, Mar 31st.