The theatrical version of one of the great Scottish novels, Lanark by Alasdair Gray, leads the nominations for this year's Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS).
Lanark: A Life in Three Acts, This Restless House and Waiting for Godot lead the nominations, which in total encompass 20 different productions.
Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre – Lanark: A Life in Three Acts and This Restless House are nominated in five categories.
The Royal Lyceum Theatre's production of Waiting for Godot, which starred Brian Cox and Bill Paterson, receives four nominations.
Lanark receives five nominations including Best Production as well as a third Best Male Performance nomination for actor Sandy Grierson. Also receiving five nominations is the Citz co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland of Zinnie Harris’s This Restless House.
It is recognised in categories including Best Director, for Dominic Hill, and Best Production, and as well as a Best Female Performance nomination for Pauline Knowles.
Waiting for Godot four categories include Best Director for Mark Thomson, Best Production and Best Ensemble, recognising the joint contribution of actors Brian Cox, Bill Paterson, John Bett and Benny Young.
Joining Sandy Grierson in the Best Male Performance category are Cliff Burnett, Barrie Hunter and Paul Higgins.
Maureen Beattie receives her third CATS nomination for Best Female Performance alongside Pauline Knowles, Angela Darcy, and Emmanuella Cole.
Critic Mark Fisher, co-convenor of the awards, said: "This has been another vintage year for theatre in Scotland with no fewer than 20 productions recognised in the shortlists.
"That so many different productions have made the shortlists demonstrates tangibly the breadth of creative talent in Scottish theatre today."
Joyce McMillan, critic and writer and co-convenor, said: "Theatre is a collaborative art-form, and once again we have seen some incredibly fruitful partnerships both within and outwith Scotland.
"For example, two co-commissions from the Edinburgh International Science Festival - Uncanny Valley and Lost at Sea - make the shortlist for Best Production for Children and Young People, and a co-production between Scotland and Norway, Drift by Vision Mechanics of Leith, is nominated in three categories.
"And our most nominated production, Lanark, is a co-production between one of our greatest companies, the Citizens’, and the Edinburgh International Festival.”
“Once again, our nominations range in scale from short shows staged on a minimal budget to massive main stage productions featuring global stars; so we’ll be celebrating the sheer diversity of Scottish theatre, as well as its greatest achievements, when we get together at the Lyceum on 12 June."
Two new award sponsors were also confirmed- the union BECTU is the new sponsor of the Best Technical Presentation Award and the Scottish Drama Training Network has is to sponsor of Best Male Performance.
The 2016 Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland will be presented at a ceremony on the afternoon of 12 June at the Royal Lyceum Theatre.
The Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) are organised annually and awarded by the theatre critics of Scotland to celebrate the best Scottish theatre achievements in the theatre year May–April.
The first CATS were awarded for the year 2002–03 in five categories: best production, male performance, female performance, design and new play.
Since then they have been awarded annually in early June for the original five categories and for five additional categories: director, technical presentation, production for children and young people, ensemble and music and sound.
179 productions were eligible for the 2916 CATS of which 100 which were eligible for the New Writing Award and 18 for the work for the Children and Young People Award.
The best director category also includes Jemima Levick for Great Expectations and Robert Softley Gale for Purposeless Movements.
The best production for children category includes Little Red and the Wolf at Dundee Rep, Lost at Sea by Catherine Wheels, Magic Sho by Catherine Wheels and Uncanny Valley by Borderline Theatre in co-production with the Gaiety Theatre.
The best new play category includes Linda Duncan McLaughlin's, Descent, Gary McNair's A Gambler's Guide to Dying, Gary McNair with Show and Tell, Zinnie Harris's This Restless House and Anita Vettesse, Ring Road.
The Best Production gong will go to either Lanark, This Restless House, Waiting for Godot or Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here