THEATRE AWARD WINNERS

The eighth annual awards evening of The Mercury Durban Theatre Awards took place this evening (November 22) at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre.

The awards system considered productions originating in Durban and presented between October 1, 2009, and September 30, 2010. Awards were given in the categories of drama and comedy, musical theatre, music revue / music compilation/ cabaret, and children’s theatre, with a total of 46 productions vying for honours at this year’s awards ceremony.

The Mercury Durban Theatre Awards recognise and acknowledge the quality of work produced in Durban in a given year. This work is maintained at a consistently high standard. Nominations for this year’s awards are as follows:

As in the past, the KickstArt theatre company walked off numerous awards for their three productions held over the year: Peter Pan, Duet for One and Miracle. Peter Pan achieved Poster Design (Shirley Berko); Costume Design (Peter Court, Steven Stead and Neil Stuart-Harris); Set Design (Greg King); Musical Theatre Supporting Actress (Shelley McLean); Musical Theatre Lead Actor (Bryan Hiles), Musical Director (Shelley McLean, Evan Roberts and Justin Southey) and Musical Theatre Director (Steven Stead). Peter Pan also won the Musical Theatre Production award.

The acclaimed Duet for One, presented by KickstArt in association with Daphne Kuhn, won the drama production award as well as Lead Actress and Lead Actor awards for Clare Mortimer and Michael Richard and the Director’s award for Steven Stead.

Michael Gritten won the Drama Supporting Actor award for KickstArt’s Miracle.

Peter Court and Bryan Hiles walked off with most of the awards in the Children’s Theatre category for their A Mariner’s Tale which won them both Lead Actor and Director awards each as well as the Production award for their company, Creative Madness.

Daisy Spencer won Lead Actress in the Children’s Theatre category for Marvellous Mixtures.

Ben Voss won the award for Performance in a Comedy by a Male as well as New South African Script for his one-man show, Bend it like Beauty. Senzo Mthethwa won awards for New Performer – Male as well as Solo Performance for The Boolulu Uncle.

Khanyisile Jwaha won the award for New Performer – Female for her performance in The Dictionary.

The Guitar that Rocked the World won Sound Design and Lighting Design for Jackie Cunniffe and Mark Kleinert respectively.


In the Music Revue / Music Compilation / Cabaret category, Andrew Webster won the Performer award for You’re so Vain while Sue Clarence Promotions’ Brutal Tunes won the production award.

In the Musical Theatre Category the Playhouse Company’s My Fair Ladysaw Lisa Bobbert winning the Lead Actress award with Cobus Venter being awarded Supporting Actor and Mark Hawkins receiving the Choreography award.

The Monica Fairall Memorial Award went to Peter Rorvik who is the director of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts and the Special Judges Award was presented to Bongumusa Madoda Mtshali for his work on the revitalisation of Stable Theatre. The Mercury Theatre Personality of the Year Award was won by Rory Booth.

This year’s ceremony was hosted by Jailoshini Naidoo of Eastern Mosaic and, as always, was a sophisticated and glamorous celebration of Durban’s theatre industry. Once again, Tim Pullen and ClaviTech made a generous donation of a ClaviTech 61-note keyboard (retailing at approximately R3,000) as the lucky draw.