Irish Times Theatre Awards: Why the most conventional production is a timely winner

DruidShakespeare: Richard III mightn't be the most aesthetically groundbreaking winner but it does feel globally relevant. Photo: Robbie Jack 

Think back to last year’s Irish Times Theatre Awards. John Logan’s paint splattering drama Red, portraying Mark Rothko’s infamous mural commission for the Seagram Building, dominated the ceremony. To a casual eye the awards could seem characterised by that old adage: “Art for art’s sake”. 

The claim certainly has evidence if you consider the arty winners of recent years. There was the cross-genre freshness of Swan Lake/Loch na hEala, the marathon form of DruidShakespeare, and the absurdist touches of Lippy and Ballyturk. It is certainly healthy that a searching play wins Best Production. 

Yet last night when DruidShakespeare: Richard III, a terrific production of Shakespeare’s history play (and by far the most conventional nominee of the night), took the trophy, I was filled with appreciation. Here we mightn’t have something as aesthetically ground breaking as How It Is: Part One, a promenade adaptation of Samuel Beckett's prose, or Grief is the Thing with Feathers, a surreal performance of a Max Porter novel. Arguably The Lost O’Casey, a magnificent reimagining of Seán O’Casey’s neglected play Nannie’s Night Out, should be acknowledged for finding new ways of confronting the homelessness crisis. But Richard III seems like a more globally relevant winner. 

Yes we could count on Garry Hynes, a director more at home with the henchmen of Martin McDonagh’s dark comedies, to bring out the delectable gallows humour of that epic war drama. But the production had a much more timely awareness. We watched as everyone surrounding Aaron Monaghan’s crafty and scheming Richard was easily gaslighted and distracted from noticing his ascension to power. It’s not difficult to see the parallels with our own reality. 

The outlook for DruidShakespeare: Richard III brightened as the imaginatively gloomy and dream-like designs of Francis O’Connor and Doreen McKenna took Best Set and Best Costume. Alas, Aaron Monaghan’s third nomination for Best Actor still wasn’t meant to be, losing to Cillian Murphy from Grief is the Thing with Feathers.

Hot on the heels of DruidShakespeare: Richard III was The Lost O’Casey, which also took three awards: Best New Play, Best Movement and Best Actress. (The fact that the judges didn’t give Best Movement to either choreographer Eddie Kay or Justine Cooper won’t sit well with those expecting the category as an entry point for dance makers). 

Just as the narrowed gap between Best Director and Best Production was fast becoming a golden rule of ITTA strategy, the judges awarded Caitríona McLoughlin, whose glowingly reviewed staging of On Rafferty’s Hill gave that old drama about abuse a devastating prescience. 

Another significant drama about consent, Asking for It, was considered by many as snubbed by the nominations. The public made its presence felt anyway, awarding it the Audience Choice Prize by a landslide. 

The ceremony was the first industry get-together since much of the independent sector sided against the Abbey Theatre’s programming through a publicly laundered letter of complaint. In a new ITTA tradition of alluding to the elephant in the room (last year the Michael Colgan accusations were represented by a literal toy model of the herbivore), hosts Janet Moran and Nyree Yergainharsian seemed to list the Abbey’s “Murray and Mclaren” as one of the great comedy duos (“What? We mean the motorsport giants”), before being cut off by footage of stampeding elephants.

Whether or not the Best Production result also counts as the Abbey Theatre’s first win since Tarry Flynn in 1998 is something that ITTA statisticians will debate for years to come. In its guidance on crediting producers, IETM states: “Although the basis for most co-production engagements is a financial one, the symbolic value of the partnership is as valuable”. Think on how DruidShakespeare: Richard III is credited as “a Druid production, in association with the Abbey Theatre” as opposed to a “coproduction”.

What is certain is that this is Druid’s third win for Best Production. That means that for the first time in a decade, Rough Magic’s record of four wins is in danger of being matched.

Another uptake was found in the performance of Musings In Intermissions’ predictions. Nine out of 15 awards were guessed correctly. Allow me to parp my own trumpet before you consider how unsurprising the Irish Times Theatre Awards have become.