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 The awards recognize the achievements of regional theater,
while the annual Olivier Awards focus on the London stage.
O'Kane won the gong for best performance in a play for his
portrayal of Jimmy in a production by Ireland's Abbey Theatre of
Belfast-born playwright Owen McCafferty's "Quietly".
The production, which has toured Britain, is about two men who
meet up in a pub decades later to deal with a bombing of that
same pub during Northern Ireland's sectarian "troubles".
Friel's 1980 play, often deemed his finest work and which deals
among other things with the importance of place names and the
ambiguities of translation, won the award for best touring
production in a staging directed by James Grieve for English
Touring Theatre and co-produced with Sheffield Theatres and Rose
Theatre Kingston.
Grieve said of the play that "working with writing of that
quality makes your job a joy". He added that the award to
productions of works by Friel and McCafferty underscored that
"Irish playwrights throughout history have been extraordinary".
The award for best new play went to "An August Bank Holiday
Lark" by Deborah McAndrew in a Northern Broadsides production,
the award for best supporting performance went to Jenna Augen
for "Bad Jews" produced by Theatre Royal Bath, the best musical
was "Brass" directed by Sara Kestelman in a National Youth Music
Theatre production at City Varieties Music Hall, Leeds, and the
gong for best performance in a musical went to Jamie Parker in
"Guys and Dolls" at the Chichester Festival Theatre.
The award for best director was shared by Duncan Macmillan and
Robert Icke for "1984", a Headlong, Nottingham Playhouse and
Almeida Theatre production, while the best design award went to
Jon Bausor for "Mametz" in a National Theatre Wales production.
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The award for best show for children and young people went to
"Dragon", a National Theatre of Scotland production in cooperation
with Vox Motus and the Tianjin People's Art Theatre in China.
Co-director Jamie Harrison said that working with the Chinese had
brought out a different way of looking at dragons than the usual
Western dragon-slayer trope.
In the almost entirely wordless play, a young boy learns about the
world in part from dragons and the portrayal of the mythical beasts
"shows more depth", Harrison said.
Julian Bird, chief executive of UK Theatre and the Society of London
Theatre, said in a statement: "The geographical diversity of this
year's winners reflects the considerable breadth of talent on offer
across the whole of the UK."
The Clothworkers' Company, established by royal charter in 1528, is
endowing a 150,000-pound ($241,400) grant for each of the next five
years, with the first award going to Theatre Royal Plymouth to bring
productions to London.
The Gielgud Award for Excellence in the Dramatic Arts was given
posthumously to the English stage and screen actor Sir Donald Sinden,
who died last month. Paul Kerryson, director of the Leicester
Threatre Trust and Leicester's Curve theater won The Stage Award for
Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre.
The theatregoers' award for "most welcoming theater" went to Wales
Millenium Centre.
(Reporting by Michael Roddy; Editing by Andrew Roche)
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