Theatre

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It was a year in which the brave were favoured, whether it was Tim Supple bringing together a cast from all over India to perform in a multilingual version of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at the Roundhouse, Katie Mitchell using video to adapt Virginia Woolf’s experimental novel for ‘Waves’ at the National Theatre, Anthony Neilson exploring the appeal of madness in ‘The Wonderful World of Dissocia’ at the Royal Court, or Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris putting non-speaking puppets in the centre of the National Theatre Olivier’s huge stage in ‘War Horse’. In addition, Punchdrunk transformed BAC into a gothic underworld in ‘The Masque of the Red Death’, Complicite explored mathematics and memory in ‘A Disappearing Number’ and director Sacha Wares and designer Miriam Buether radically reconfigured first The Maria at the Young Vic for Debbie Tucker Green’s ‘Generations’, and secondly the Royal Court for Mike Bartlett’s ‘My Child’. Filter won more friends with their technical wizardry in ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’ at the Cottesloe and ‘Water’ at the Lyric Hammersmith. And in ‘An Oak Tree’ at the Soho Theatre, Tim Crouch worked with a different actor every night who had neither seen the show previously nor read the script.
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In contrast, new writing created by a lone author was left somewhat out in the cold, with the exception of Hassan Abdulrazzak: he made a promising debut with ‘Baghdad Wedding’ at Soho Theatre. Otherwise, the old guys ruled. Put Shakespeare together with a star and box office phones start to ring. Rupert Goold placed himself in the front rank of directors with ‘Macbeth’ in which Patrick Stewart played the Thane, Ian McKellen nearly pulled off Lear for the RSC, Chiwetel Ejiofor excelled as Othello at the Donmar Warehouse. Howard Davies’ naturalistic production of ‘Philistines’ showed a family falling apart in pre-revolutionary Russia. Rory Kinnear established himself as a major actor in both ‘Philistines’ and and as the comic fop in ‘The Man of Mode’. Marianne Elliott took yet another war horse, Shaw’s ‘Saint Joan’, and sent men into battle with chairs, while Anne-Marie Duff was terrific as the Maid. Stage warfare will never be the same again.

Jane Edwardes
Best West End show
‘Macbeth’ at the Gielgud Theatre.
Memorable moment
The sight of a puppet horse tangled in barbed wire in ‘War Horse’ at the National Theatre.
It’s been a good year for…
BAC. It resolved a threat to its finances, collaborated with Punchdrunk on ‘The Masque of the Red Death’, and has imaginative plans for the future.
Tip for the top
Tom Hiddleston who was remarkable as both Posthumous and Cloten in ‘Cymbeline’ for Cheek by Jowl, and went on to play Cassio in ‘Othello’ at the Donmar Warehouse.

Tamara Gausi
Best Fringe show
Fail Better’s production of ‘The Diary of a Madman’ at the Rosemary Branch Theatre.
Memorable moment
The hilarious and painfully truthful opening scene of Bijan Sheibani’s production of ‘Gone Too Far!’.
It’s been a good year for…
Internationalism.
Tip for the top
Edward Bennett in ‘Diana of Dobson’s’ at the Orange Tree Theatre and as Roderigo in ‘Othello’ at the Donmar Warehouse.

Jonathan Gibbs
Best Fringe show
‘Bacchaeful’ presented by Dirty Market Theatre in a disused sawmill in Peckham.
Memorable moment
Dour Scottish comedy and Russian folk-pop meshing heart-wrenchingly in Vanishing Point’s ‘Subway’ at the Lyric Hammersmith.
Tip for the top
Noah Birksted-Breen, director and translator of Sputnik Theatre.

Brian Logan
Best Off-West End show
‘An Oak Tree’ at Soho Theatre.
Memorable moment
I’m used to mobile phones going off in the audience. When I watched ‘Subway’ at the Lyric Hammersmith, one of the musician’s mobile phones went off on stage.
It’s been a good year for…
The National Theatre of Scotland with ‘Aalst’, ‘Venus as a Boy’ and Anthony Neilson’s ‘Dissocia’ wowing London, and ‘Black Watch’ taking the States by storm.
Tip for the top
Analogue, who made the Edinburgh hit ‘Mile End’.

Caroline McGinn
Best West End show
‘Cymbeline’ at the Barbican.
Memorable moment
Being alone on a narrow staircase at Punchdrunk’s ‘Masque of the Red Death’ when a tramp lurched out of the fire exit two floors above, tightrope-walking a narrow iron roof-strut above the stairwell, then suddenly plunged 20 feet, catching himself on the bannister below me with his elbow.
It’s been a good year for…
Samuel West, who stole the thunder in Roger Allam’s revival of Pinter’s chamber-play ‘Betrayal’ at the Donmar Warehouse. West obviously took some of the Donmar’s stage-furniture – and its classy production values – with him to his next gig, ‘Dealer’s Choice’, at the Menier Chocolate Factory.
Tip for the top
Andrea Riseborough in ‘The Pain and the Itch’ at the Royal Court Theatre.

Lucy Powell
Best West End show
‘Macbeth’ at the Gielgud Theatre.
Memorable moment
The transformation of the rhinoceros in ‘Rhinoceros’ at the Royal Court.
It’s been a good year for…
Black playwrights.
Tip for the top
Olga Eliseeva in Theatre Licedei.

Robert Shore
Best West End show
‘The Drowsy Chaperone’ at the Novello Theatre.
Memorable moment
The climax of ‘Angels in America’ at the Lyric Hammersmith.
It’s been a good year for...
Smoking on stage.
Tip for the top
Stephen Wight in ‘Dealer’s Choice’.