The goal of these awards, the fourth annual Allan Awards, is to look back over the past 12 months and share with you some fond memories and highlights. And what a year it was. Sure, there were several disappointments. Many a wildly praised visiting Broadway show turned out to be a drag or certainly not close to its reputation. We were also planning on getting Eddie Murphy to guest-edit the piece, but we had to let him go to preserve the integrity of the awards. Ahem. But enough of cavils, and on with the show.
BEST ONE-MAN SHOW
Back in February, one of the greatest talents to ever come out of this country, Christopher Plummer, brought back his charming, witty production of Barrymore, based on the life of the famed Broadway and movie star. Hardly a literary gem, but on stage, this inspired, 82-year-old actor had the audience in his hands from the moment he stepped out onto the stage.
BEST ONE-WOMAN SHOW
Unarguably, it would have to be the funny, intelligent and wonderfully entertaining Sandra Shamas with Wit’s End III: Love Life. Who else in the world can moan about menstruation “Once a month for 39 years!” and then, referring to a reference to her watching a film called You’re Becoming a Woman as an 11-year-old, she murmurs, “There’s no menopause movie called You’re Becoming a Hag Now.
MOST CHALLENGING
The wildly gifted, Lebanese-born, Canadian playwright Wajdi Mouawad, whose powerful Incendies (Scorched) was turned into a devastating movie, had a new play, Forests, presented at the Tarragon Theatre. It was three hours of stunning, often heart-wrenching theatre about the dreadful wars of the miserable 20th century. It didn’t always “work” on stage, but what daring and power.
BEST ATTEMPT AT CAPTURING OUR GREAT CITY ON STAGE
Who else but Soulpepper could have attempted an original one-act called Window on Toronto? The laughter, the joy, the mixed races, United Nations of cultures, the chutzpah, the poverty, the wealth, the humour of this amazing city of ours — captured. Hopefully it will one day be captured on film, so its brilliance can be preserved.
THE MOST THOUGHTFUL PRODUCTION OF A RECENT AMERICAN PLAY
In the Next Room, which showed at the Tarragon this past fall, would definitly win. Sara Ruhl’s award-winning play — magically directed by the gifted Richard Rose, with some of the city’s finest performers, including David Storch, Melody A. Johnson, Trish Lindstrom and the ethereal Elizabeth Saunders — visualizes, right through the 19th century, why the word for womb literally means “hysteria.” Brilliant.
THE BEST NON-PROFIT THEATRE COMPANY, BAR NONE, IN CANADA TODAY
When I think back to the amazing actor Diego Matamoros’ moulding of the magnificent, mythological, haunting story The Aleph (by writer Jorge Luis Borges’) into a fine piece of theatre; when I recall the hilarious, musical, physical, thrilling version of Shakespeare’s near-perfect A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed with glory by Rick Roberts; when I ponder the sweet, touching, uproarious production of The Fantasticks, with the great Oliver Dennis and William Webster keeping us in stitches, well, Soulpepper wins our hearts and minds for another year.
