A year in theatre: for the three judges of the annual Irish Times/ESB Theatre Awards it is time to short-list the four contenders for each of 12 categories, and then name the winners. They tell Susan Conley what 2002 will be remembered for
If anybody deserved a celebratory glass or two of champagne on New Year's Eve, it was Karen Fricker, Brian Singleton, and Maureen Kennelly, 2002's Irish Times/ESB Theatre Awards judges. It was fitting that, after a year of endeavouring to see every professional Irish production mounted on the country's stages, the work of cutting down the long-list of nominations to their short-lists of four in each of 12 categories would occur on December 31st, providing an appropriate end to a highly pressurised yet rewarding task.
All three were chipper enough on the day, despite the work of reducing that long-list: compiled throughout the 12 months of their remit, it was comprised of any representative in every category that the judges deemed worthy of recognition.
Fricker, chairwoman of the judging panel and editor of Irish Theatre magazine, explains the process. "We met every couple of months, and anybody who'd seen something that they thought was interesting or noteworthy, or that they thought they might want to see on a short-list, they put on the long-list - and we weren't allowed to argue.
"Today's meeting was the first time that we started to explain and argue for our choices. There were times where a choice was absolutely clear, and we all agreed. But there were other times when one was truly surprised over another's passion for a performance, a design, a play."
Passion is a big requisite of the job, and Kennelly, former director of the Kilkenny Arts Festival, came in very strongly as regards whether the experience was any fun or not. "It was fun! I really enjoyed it, and of course I'm doing it again next year, so I must have done. It's brilliant to get such an overview of what's going on and to see so many different venues, places that I would not necessarily have seen in such a concentrated fashion, and lots of non-specific venues, so I was really happy to have seen all that."
List-making defines the entire process, and Singleton, senior lecturer in Drama at the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College, Dublin, tops the one labelled "Saw the Most Shows", with 143. "There were so many shows that could easily be on the short-list, that were right up there, and then it comes down to the meeting of minds of the three judges. The three of us had to agree, and all three of us saw all the shows that are nominated."
All three cite the gruelling aspects of the process - the travel, the hours spent in the dark, working their judging schedules around their day jobs - but all are equally quick to say they took their tasks very, very seriously. "It's extremely important to us that these awards be useful and credible within the theatre community itself, and that's not going to happen unless they're confident, and we're confident, that we have seen everything and that thus, we are speaking from authority," says Fricker. "I know that sometimes people might get frustrated because they saw something that they thought was absolutely brilliant and it didn't appear in the short-lists, and the only response that we have is: 'We did see everything'."
Seeing everything required feats of organisational savvy; unfortunately, none of the judges kept a tally of their mileage, as cross-country travel was a big part of their lives during their judging year. "I tried to see a show in its place of origin - it didn't always work out, but that was my motive," says Singleton. "I think it was very important for us to see the shows with a constituent audience. That's what theatre's made for.
"One occasion that I found memorable was watching Caught Red Handed (produced by Tinderbox) with a very politically aware audience, and then Cré na Cille (produced by An Tabhdearc), watching Irish speakers in the audience - these shows were celebrating the cultures of different communities."
"I saw an awful lot of fringe productions I wouldn't have seen," says Kennelly, giving an example of the upside of the year-long journey, "There were a lot of companies that were new to me, and I got to see what different people were doing."
"I think that the nominations speak for themselves in terms of representing the diversity of the field," says Fricker. "I am excited by the theatre that I saw, and the evolution and change that's happening in the independent sector in Dublin, and in the regions, and in the more 'institutional' theatres outside of Dublin as well."
The consensus is that Irish theatre is in the process of change, change that is already proving itself to be positive and exciting. Kennelly pinpoints an opening up of subject matter as something to watch in future: "It [Irish theatre] is certainly reaching out to other forms. I think people are attempting other things, and an attempt to embrace Irish contemporary life and politics, and that's an encouraging trend."
In Singleton's opinion, the shift began in the early 1990s, and is supported by greater education of practitioners on the island (who actually stay on the island) and thus good things are happening.
"Theatre is diversifying. It's completely evolved from the author as the source and origin of all meaning in the theatre to other people being the source of meaning. And there's an increase in the interest in the power of the director and that's why the adaptations have quite often been created by the director's themselves."
The most interesting development to come out of the judging for 2002 is the focus of the Judges' Judges Award. Each year, the panel is welcome to use their discretion in designating a category to embrace works that are interesting and creative, but don't fit into the normal system; this year, adaptations get the nod for being at the forefront of creativity. "It's celebrating the real life of what's happening in Irish theatre, and adaptation is a lively field," says Fricker. "It's something that maybe would have fallen through the cracks if you only think of theatre as 'putting on a play'. That's not what we're here to do, we're here to look at what's actually happening and say, well this is what constitutes Irish theatre at this point, and that's a place of a lot of energy."
Their job isn't over yet: the panel meets one more time, on the day before the gala awards presentation, which takes place on Sunday, February 16th at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin, to select winners from the short-lists.
As difficult as it is, the judges are satisfied that the nominations reflect the current state of Irish theatre, a theatre that is in transition and that is working towards, perhaps, a wholly new identity. As Fricker says: "It's an eye-opening list of nominations." See for yourself.