The Offies celebrate the best of independent, alternative and fringe theatre – across Greater London and at selected fringe festivals around the UK. Their 2023 ceremony, on the afternoon of Sunday, 12 February, gave out over 50 awards across an exciting range of categories and to a hugely diverse range of recipients. Over 700 people attended to participate in the first live Offies ceremony since March 2020.
Presenters at this year’s awards included Lord Parkinson, Minister for Arts & Heritage, and Catherine West, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, whose constituency includes the Alexandra Palace, the venue for the awards ceremony – and whose CEO, Emma Dagnes, was another presenter. Other presenters included Dame Maureen Lipman (also a winner for Best Solo Performance), the playwright James Graham, and actors including Sharon D Clarke, Monica Dolan, Louise Jameson and Linda Marlowe – as well as a number of winners of the Offies last year.
In 2022, the Offies introduced a number of new award categories. One of these is the Access award, which recognises the contribution of theatre in providing both access to the arts and a platform for creative individuals and others with lived experience of disability or social disadvantage, and which was awarded this year to shows from Zoo Co Theatre and Graeae. In addition, theatre companies working with people with special needs were winners in several other categories, including Best Production (Plays), won by “The Solid Life of Sugar Water”, presented at the Orange Tree Theatre. The Offies scrapped gender based categories in 2021, though they have maintained at least two winners in each of these categories. Other finalists and winners included many identifying as LGBT or queer, and a large number of performers and other creatives of colour. The Offies also introduced two other new categories in 2022 – for Newcomer and Cabaret – and expanded the categories for Theatre for Young Audiences – alongside the more traditional categories for plays and musicals.
The ceremony included two distinctive performances, from Chickenshed, a company working with diverse groups from their local community, and a song from an all-male production of HMS Pinafore. There was also a welcome video message from the cast of The Play That Goes Wrong – a show that began its life at the Old Red Lion pub theatre – and a video from the English speaking theatre in Ukraine.
Six special awards were also made – to Maggie Norris at The Big House, to the New Diorama for Intervention 01 (where no new productions were undertaken but instead they worked with a large number of creative individuals), to the radical Blueprint Festival at the Queens Theatre Hornchurch (also focusing on work with people with special needs), to Tarek Iskander for his work at Battersea Arts Centre, to the Bush Theatre for their 50th anniversary, and to John and Katie Plews who have led the Upstairs at the Gatehouse venue for over 30 years.
Geoffrey Brown, Director of the Offies, said “it was a wonderful ceremony which emphasised the extraordinary innovation and creativity that flourishes across independent theatre. This sector is both the seed-bed for performers, writers and other creatives who will achieve great future recognition, and also the basis for ongoing engagement at the grassroots, creating and fostering the audiences of tomorrow.”
The full list of winners can be found below.
Offies Winners 2023
SPECIAL AWARDS 2023
Artistic Director: Tarek Iskander, Artistic Director, Battersea Arts Centre
Producer: Bush Theatre
Special Achievement: John and Katie Plews, Upstairs at the Gatehouse
ONE OFF – Occasional Awards
Maggie Norris, The Big House
Blueprint Festival, Queens Theatre Hornchurch
Intervention 01, New Diorama
PEOPLE’S VOTE – awards for venues, voted by the public
Foodie Experience: Drayton Arms Theatre
Programmes: Orange Tree Theatre
Theatre Bar: The Vaults
Facilities: The Vaults
Most Comfortable: Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch
Most Welcoming: Barons Court Theatre
Online Info & Booking: Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch
Programming & Policy: Polka Theatre
Social Media Presence & Activities: Jack Studio Theatre
OnComm – awards for online theatre
Into The Night / Original Theatre
Online (Audio)
The Waves / Holy Mountain Productions / Tamasha Theatre Company
OffFest – awards for theatre at fringe festivals
Camden Fringe
Dog/Actor / Threedumb Theatre / Etcetera Theatre
Voila! Europe
Pourquoi les vieux, qui n’ont rien à faire, traversent-ils au feu rouge? / In Itinere Collectif / Cockpit Theatre
Edinburgh Fringe
Earwig / Time and Again Theatre Company / Assembly Rooms
Offies
DESIGN
Costume Design
Reuben Speed / Doctor Faustus / Southwark Playhouse
Set Design
Grace Smart / The Wonderful World of Dissocia / Theatre Royal Stratford East
Sound Design
Calum Perrin / Ten Days in a Madhouse / Jack Studio Theatre
Lighting Design
Aaron J Dootson / The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me / New Wimbledon Studio
Video Design
Douglas Baker / Ten Days in a Madhouse / Jack Studio Theatre
MUSICALS & OPERA
Opera Performance
Company & Orchestra / The Cunning Little Vixen / HGO / Jacksons Lane
Opera Production
Patience / Charles Court Opera / Wilton’s Music Hall
New Musical
Olivia Thompson / La Maupin / Lion & Unicorn
Musical Director
Jamie Noar / Say Yes to Tess / Camden People’s Theatre
Director (Musicals)
Matthew Parker / Thrill Me / Jermyn St Theatre
Supporting Performance in a Musical
Michael Mather / But I’m a Cheerleader / Turbine Theatre
Yuki Sutton / Ride / Charing Cross Theatre
Lead Performance in a Musical
Luke Bayer / Diva: Live from Hell / Turbine Theatre
Liv Andrusier / Ride / Charing Cross Theatre
Production (Musicals)
Operation Mincemeat / Southwark Playhouse
THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES
Design
set Sam Wilde, lighting Sherry Coenen / I Want My Hat Back / Little Angel Theatre
Original Music/Sound
composer Jon Ouin; sound design George Bellamy / Kinder / Smoking Apples Theatre / Little Angel Theatre
Writing
Azan Ahmed / Daytime Deewane / Half Moon Theatre /
Performance
Ellie Carroll, Hector Dogliani, Will Lawrence, Lauren Cambridge, Jonny Morton / Jack / Chickenshed
Production
Kinder / Smoking Apples Theatre / Little Angel Theatre
CROSS-GENRE
IDEA Design
Cages / Scenario Two / Woolf & The Wondershow / Riverside Studios
IDEA Performance
Louise Mothersole & Rebecca Biscuit / Evita Too / Soho Theatre
IDEA Production
It Don’t Worry Me / Bert & Nasi / ATRESBANDES / New Diorama
Access
Perfect Show for Rachel / Zoo Co Theatre / Barbican
The Paradis Files / Graeae / Queen Elizabeth Hall
Choreography / Movement
Dannielle “Rhimes” Leconte / Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World / Theatre Royal Stratford East
Newcomer
Nkhanise Phiri / Alice in Wonderland / Poltergeist Theatre / Brixton House
Performance Ensemble
Michael Fatogun, Anyebe Godwin, Doreene Blackstock, Tosin Alabi, Nemide May / Foxes / Seven Dials Playhouse
Cabaret
Reuben Kaye / The Butch Is Back / Soho Theatre
Panto
Sleeping Beauty / Queens Theatre Hornchurch
PLAYS
Most Promising New Playwright
Waleed Akhtar / Kabul Goes Pop / Brixton House (and also for The P Word at the Bush Theatre)
New Play
Tyrell Williams / Red Pitch / Bush Theatre
Director (Plays)
Matthew Iliffe / Bacon / Finborough
Supporting Performance in a Play
Oliver Hembrough / All My Sons / Queens Theatre Hornchurch
Caitlin Fielding / Monster / Park Theatre
Performance Piece
Liz Kingsman / One Woman Show / Soho Theatre
Solo Performance in a Play
Joseph Potter / The Poltergeist / Arcola
Dame Maureen Lipman / Rose / Park Theatre
Lead Performance in a Play
Rebecca Humphries / Blackout Songs / Hampstead Theatre (Studio)
William Robinson / Bacon / Finborough
Corey Montague-Sholay / Bacon / Finborough
Production (Plays)
The Solid Life of Sugar Water / Orange Tree Theatre
To find out more about this year’s OffWestEnd Awards, visit here…
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