Date posted: Monday 22 March 2010
At last night's Olivier Awards, THE MOUNTAINTOP won the Best New Play Award. Katori Hall’s two-hander began life at Battersea’s Theatre503 before being transferred to the West End by SFP. Set the night before the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, it starred David Harewood as the famous civil rights leader and Lorraine Burroughs (also nominated in the Best Actress category) as the maid in his Memphis motel with whom he has an illuminating encounter.
Mark Rylance was named Best Actor for his portrayal of local waster Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron in JERUSALEM. Jez Butterworth’s play opened at the Royal Court last summer and was transferred by SFP earlier this year to the Apollo theatre, where it plays to 24 April. This is Rylance’s second Laurence Olivier Award; he won Best Actor in 1994 for Much Ado About Nothing. He was most recently nominated in 2008 for his role in BOEING-BOEING.
Ultz also triumphed in the Best Set Design category for his work on JERUSALEM, taking home the coveted bronze statuette for his leafy design of a Wiltshire wood.