Bobby Robson Saved My Life
Exeunt’s Alternative Theatre Awards of 2019
Iron your cummerbunds, the starriest, glitziest event of the theatre calendar is here: it’s Exeunt’s annual (alternative) awards.
Sam Neale in Bobby Robson Saved My Life at Customs House, South Shields. Design, Gareth Hunter and Jamie Brown; lighting design, John Rainsforth. Photo: Chris J. Allan.
The “I
thought it was just me” Communal Catharsis Award
Since 2019 has been, to say the least, a total shitshow, theatre has often felt
to me more urgent and necessary than ever, and never more so than when it
provides a room full of people with a shock of recognition and validation. I
found that in expected and unexpected places this year: while advance press
meant I anticipated the rousing call to arms that was the Emilia closing
speech, I was more surprised to find it in The Customs House tribute to a
beloved local hero in Bobby Robson Saved My Life, which saw me and
an audience of Geordies crying over a good man gone, or in the audible groans
of recognition and sheer absolute bloody relief that greeted Alphabetti’s Down
to Zero (and its smartly calibrated response pieces), which tackled
the still-too-often unspoken side effects of menopause. (Tracey
Sinclair)
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