25 August, 2008

Guardian Gongs

As great as it is to acknowledge and humbly bow for the big prestigious Festival awards, it's the obscure and often zany ones that sometimes offer a little comic relief...so here are some of the Guardian's gongs as chosen by Brian Logan.

The Hercule Poirot Award
The dance hit of this year's Featival came from Rosas 'with an awe-inspiring programme by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, set to the music of Steve Reich'.

The What The Papers Say Award
EIF productions hit the headlines for a variety of reasons during Festival 08. Some of the most notable stories were the sad death of Mahmoud Darwish, whose epic poem - penned after a near death experience - was staged just four days after his death. It also mentions the State Ballet of Georgia: 'Then, as Russian bombs fell on Georgia, prima ballerina Nina Ananiashvili hit town with Giselle but found herself talking about war, not art'. The 'extraordinary Anchiskhati Choir of Tbilisi' were also praised.

The Leonard Cohen Award
TR Warszawa's production of the dark Sarah Kane play and National Theatre of Scotland's 365 were mentioned in this category. 'Sarah Kane's never-knowingly-cheerful suicide poem, 4.48 Psychosis joined in as did the National Theatre of Scotland's 365, about the unhappy plight of children in care'.

The Noah's Ark Award
'Recipient: The Scottish weather. We Scots spend our lives rebutting the accusation that our country is anything other than a sun-kissed paradise. And then it goes and rains - an awful, awful lot.'

To read the full article click here.

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