In this ‘special circumstances’ year, the Offies 2021 Awards Ceremony celebrated the creativity and resilience of artists in fringe, alternative and independent theatre in a time of crisis who have found new ways to produce fresh and inventive work for thousands of stay-at-home audiences.
The Offies are OffWestEnd’s main awards, for shows with at least 10 performances, and awards were given to the best of the shows presented before lockdown and the few who managed to go ahead in the summer
months.
The OnComm is the new award for online shows from across the UK (and beyond) and was introduced in May 2020. Additionally, the winner of the OffFest award for theatre shows in festivals was also announced, alongside extra OneOff awards for innovative work and initiatives in 2020, especially in the light of the Covid lockdown.
OFFIE AWARDS
DESIGN
Design: Lighting
Malcolm Rippeth / Afterplay / Coronet Theatre
WINNER – Tom White / Macbeth / Wiltons Music Hall
Jamie Platt / The Last 5 Years / Southwark Playhouse
Design: Set
Lucy Osborne / Afterplay / Coronet Theatre
Casey Jay Andrews / Lockdown Town /
WINNER – Patrick Connellan / The Incident Room / New Diorama with Greenwich Theatre
Design: Sound
Max Pappenheim / Sunnymead Court / Tristan Bates Theatre
WINNER – Yaiza Varona / The Incident Room / New Diorama with Greenwich Theatre
Neil Bettles / Petrichor / Theatre Royal Stratford East
PLAYS / MUSICALS / IDEA
Ensemble: Performance
Joanne Clifton, Dan Krikler, Harry Francis, Tanisha Mae-Brown, Tsemaye Bob-Egbe, Ryan Anderson / Pippin / Garden Theatre at the Eagle
WINNER – Rachel Barnes, Laurie Jamieson, Nigel Taylor, Daniel Ward / The Canary and The Crow / Arcola
Stephanie Booth & Hannah Livingstone / We Were Having A Perfectly Nice Time / Omnibus Theatre
IDEA Performance
WINNER – FK Alexander / I Could Go on Singing / Southbank Centre
Lucy McCormick / Post Popular / Soho Theatre, Johnson & Mackay & United Agents
Abraão Kimberley, Pedro Verissimo & 13 others / When It Breaks It Burns / Battersea Arts Centre
IDEA Production
I Could Go on Singing / Southbank Centre
The Lost Hours / Vault Festival
WINNER – Sound Cistem / Plaster Cast Theatre / Vault Festival
MUSICALS
Musicals: Director
Bronagh Lagan / Rags / Park Theatre
WINNER – Jonathan O’Boyle / The Last 5 Years / Southwark Playhouse
Musicals: Lead Performance
WINNER – Frances Barber / Musik / Leicester Square Theatre
Carolyn Maitland / Rags / Park Theatre
Molly Lynch / The Last 5 Years / Southwark Playhouse
Oli Higginson / The Last 5 Years / Southwark Playhouse
Musicals: Musical Director
Michael Bradley / Pippin / Garden Theatre at the Eagle
WINNER – Joe Bunker / Rags / Park Theatre
George Dyer / The Last 5 Years / Southwark Playhouse
Musicals: Production
LAMBCO Productions / Pippin / Garden Theatre at the Eagle
Katy Lipson for Aria Entertainment / Rags / Park Theatre
WINNER – Katy Lipson for Aria Entertainment / The Last 5 Years / Southwark Playhouse
Musicals: Supporting Performance
Beaux Harris / Blitz! / Union Theatre
Rachel Izen / Rags / Park Theatre
WINNER – Dave Willetts / Rags / Park Theatre
PLAYS
Plays: Director
Jim Pope / Can I Help You? / Omnibus Theatre
Lily McLeish / Scrounger / Finborough
WINNER – Phoebe Barran / Tryst / Chiswick Playhouse
Evan Lordan / We Were Having A Perfectly Nice Time / Omnibus Theatre
Plays: Lead Performance
James Demaine / Nuclear War | Buried | Graceland / Old Red Lion
Sam Crane / The Rage of Narcissus / Pleasance
WINNER – Jessica Rhodes / The Sugar Syndrome / Orange Tree Theatre
Plays: New Play
WINNER – Athena Stevens / Scrounger / Finborough
WINNER – Sergio Blanco / The Rage of Narcissus / Pleasance
Sam Steiner / You Stupid Darkness! / Southwark Playhouse
Plays: Performance Piece
Lucy McCormick / Post Popular / Soho Theatre
Miguel Hernando Torres Umba / Stardust / Roundhouse
WINNER – Daniel Ward / The Canary and The Crow / Arcola
Plays: Supporting Performance
WINNER – Leigh Quinn / Scrounger / Finborough
Ali Barouti / The Sugar Syndrome / Orange Tree Theatre
John Hollingworth / The Sugar Syndrome / Orange Tree Theatre
ONCOMM Awards
Recording pre-lockdown (direct)
(i.e. with little or no editing)
Going Viral / Daniel Bye
Hysteria / Spymonkey
Jane Clegg / Finborough Theatre
WINNER – The House Of Bernarda Alba / Graeae
Recording pre-lockdown (edited)
(i.e. with significant editing)
Bubble / Theatre Uncut
Cyprus Avenue / Royal Court & Abbey Theatre
SeaWall / Simon Stephens
WINNER – The Encounter / Complicité
Recording post-lockdown (direct)
(i.e. with little or no editing)
About 500 / Simona Hughes
WINNER – Breathe / by Neil Bebber
This Evil Thing / Essential Theatre
Within / Threedumb Theatre
Recording post-lockdown (edited)
(i.e. with significant editing)
Birdsong Online / Original Theatre
Midnight Your Time / Donmar Warehouse
WINNER – Rose / Ginger Quiff Media / Hope Mill Theatre
Wait For Me / Sam Cassidy
Live streamed (originally)
(may be presented later as a recording)
Before After – A Musical Love Story / The Grey
Area Theatre Company
Cupid’s Corner / Parade Stone
The Boss Of It All / New Perspectives / Soho
Theatre
WINNER – The Poltergeist / Jack Silver / Southwark
Playhouse
Audio
Contemporary Political Ethics (Or, How To Cheat)
/ Traverse Theatre
Not So Quiet on the Welsh Front / Front Room
Theatre
WINNER – Rockets and Blue Lights / Royal Exchange / Lockdown Theatre Festival
The Barren Author / Barnaby Eaton-Jones
Platform based
(presented using a platform such as Zoom)
Agent Venture / The Adventure Is Real
WINNER – Alice, A Virtual Theme Park / Creation Theatre
Beige / MAGNA
Richard III / The Show Must Go Online
Series
WINNER – 15 Heroines: The Desert / The Labyrinth / The
War / Jermyn St Theatre
Digital Caravan Theatre / Small Truth
Press Play / Popelei & Emma Blackman
Telling Tales / Muck + Rumble
Immersive/Interactive
Dream Catcher / Blue Moon
User Not Found / Dante or Die
WINNER – Viper Squad / Sid Phoenix
Wind in the Willows / Guildford Shakespeare Co
Innovative
For Quality Purposes / Stan’s Internet Café
Snowflake: Visual EP / MPTheatricals
Truth to Power Café / Jeremy Goldstein & London
Artists Projects
WINNER – What A Carve Up! / Lawrence Batley Theatre,
New Wolsey Theatre and The Barn Theatre
Shows for Young People 12+
Crime of the Century / Chickenshed
Guantanamo Boy / Half Moon Theatre
WINNER – I, Cinna (the poet) / Tim Crouch / Unicorn
North Country / Freedom Studios
Shows for Children
Michael Rosen’s Clever Cakes / Little Angel
Paper Aeroplane / Half Moon Theatre
WINNER – The Twits / Unicorn Theatre
There’s a Bear on my Chair / Little Angel
Family Shows
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Chickenshed
Dream Catcher / Blue Moon Zoom
Snow White in the Seven Months of Lockdown /
King’s Head Theatre, Charles Court Opera
WINNER – The Legend of Moby Dick Whittington / Sleeping Trees
OffFEST for the Voila Europe Festival
Farewell Concert, K2 Theater / supported by Hungarian Cultural Centre
OneOFFS
Wait for Me, Sam Cassidy & Ainsley Ricketts
DreamCatcher, Blue Moon Zoom
Traverse 3, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Scenesaver, www.scenesaver.co.uk
