High-drama airport play tipped for award

A SHOW that took ticket-holders on a trip to Edinburgh Airport and used it as the setting for a surreal drama was yesterday revealed as favourite in the race for the Scottish theatre awards.

Roam, which featured eight actors playing travellers and airline staff, picked up five nominations as theatre critics set about choosing the best plays of the past year.

Roam was jointly produced by the Edinburgh-based Grid Iron theatre company and the new National Theatre of Scotland, and both had a strong showing yesterday in the Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland.

Grid Iron, launched in 1995, earned four nominations for its highly rated Fringe 2005 show, The Devil's Larder, acted out in Debenhams in Princes Street.

The National Theatre of Scotland, in its first year of operation, notched up 11 nominations.

All were for "site-specific" productions using settings outside a conventional theatre and were part of "Home", the NTS event launched in February.

Home: East Lothian, a children's show that retold the story of Hansel and Gretel in the unlikely setting of the Prestongrange Industrial Heritage Museum, earned four nominations, including best show for children and best production.

Home: Shetland, which put 100 fiddlers aboard a ferry in Lerwick Harbour, received a nomination for best music.

However, high-profile "Home" shows in Edinburgh, which starred Daniela Nardini, and Glasgow, with Billy Boyd, failed to make the list.

Blackbird, the Edinburgh International Festival play commissioned from playwright David Harrower, probing the aftermath of an affair between a man aged 40 and a girl aged 12, earned nominations for best new play and best production.

Sir Brian McMaster, the director of the International Festival, said: "The EIF was thrilled to offer audiences such an exciting and challenging new work."

The list brought disappointment for Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre, with no nominations.

The Citizens' Theatre, however, will take heart from the three nominations for Molly Sweeney. The Glasgow theatre saw its Scottish Arts Council funding lowered to "flexible" this year, amid questions over its productions and audiences.

The other contender for best production is Faust Parts 1&2, shown at the Royal Lyceum.

Faust and Blackbird were nominated for best new play, along with two plays that were part of Oran Mor's A Play, a Pie and a Pint season in Glasgow - The Importance of Being Alfred by Louise Welsh and Wired by Davey Anderson.

Leading actors Liam Brennan, Dugald Bruce-Lockhart, Andy Clark and Tommy Mullins are competing for best actor.

Carol Ann Crawford, Cara Kelly, Jill Riddiford and Cath Whitefield are in the running for best female actor.

The awards will be presented in Dundee on 4 June.