The Offies Winners announced.
Actress Eileen Atkins has won Best Female Performance at the third Off West End Awards hosted by Simon Callow. Championing the best in fringe theatre, the awards took place on 24th February at Battersea Arts Centre where presenters Anne Mitchell, Toby Jones, Blanch McIntyre, Fin Kennedy and Martin Sherman presented a total of 20 awards to established and up and coming actors, directors, writers and technicians.
Having lost out to Hattie Morahan at The Evening Standard Theatre Awards earlier this year, Eileen Atkins took home a gong for her performance in Samuel Beckett's All That Fall and began her thank-yous with “Fuck The Evening Standard Awards!” At the opposite end of the spectrum, the award for Best Male Performance went to the relatively unknown Thomas Coombes ,who beat out the likes of Jasper Britton, for his work in Barbarians at Tooting Arts Centre.
Best Director went to Sean Holmes for Desire Under The Elms and A Midsummer Night's Dream at Lyric Hammersmith. Uncle Vanya at The Print Room won Best Production and Lungs, by Duncan MacMillan, beat Howard Barker's Lot and his God to win Best New Play. Nicholas Pierpan, the writer of The Maddening Rain and You Can Still Make A Killing, took home the award for Most Promising New Playwright. Poet KateTempest also won the TBC award, an acknowledgement of less traditional theatre formats, for her spokenword show Wasted.
The Offies is judged by a panel that consists mostly of theatre critics including Mark Shenton, Matt Wolf, Ian Shuttleworth and Daisy Bowie-Sell. With seasoned veterans like Eileen Atkins up for the the same awards as fellow nominee Matti Houghton, another highly talented but much lesser-known performer, The Offies (unlike another awards ceremony taking place tonight) reflects the breadth of the scene. The mix of winners this year shows that the awards, which have previously been called theatre's “benevolent eye,” continue to prove their significance.
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Image: Thomas Coombes (left) in Barbarians. Photo Credit: Ellie Kurtz
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