Australia’s perennial Helpmann Awards can’t exactly compete with the florid, celebrity-inflated extravaganza of its American counterpart The Tony’s, but wins by A-List actors Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush definitely gave a profile boost to last night’s ceremony.
The Helpmann Awards, which honour achievement in Australia’s live performance arts sectors (theatre, dance, cabaret, live music, etc), were held at the Sydney Opera House last night.
Blanchett took out the gong for Best Female Actor in a Play for her performance in Uncle Vanya presented by Sydney Theatre Company (of which she is co-director) in association with Bell Shakespeare. Geoffery Rush won Best Male Actor In A Play for his performance in Neil Armfield‘s play The Diary of a Madman, for which Armfield also won Best Director.
Going up against multiple Oscar-nominees like Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush is like entering a money competition against Oprah Winfrey, and locally based Oz actors probably wish they’d both fuck off back to Hollywood to even the playing field… However, there’s no better way to get people into theatres and watching local productions than the promise of seeing high-profile actors doing their thing in the flesh; And the more ticket-payers that walk through the doors of Australian venues, the more the local industry can flourish.
For details on all the 201 Helpmann Award winners head to: www.helpmannawards.com.au
Image by: Marty Melville via Getty
