26 March 2008 Written by Lilly Dominic Print This Post  Email This Post

Are the Olivier awards still relevant? With audience numbers breaking new records and a theorised new era in theatre approaching due to the ever growing presence of new marketing techniques linked in with TV, there was a surprising lack of interest in last night’s annual Olivier awards. You could be forgiven for not realising they had happened. There is so little press coverage, and that there is seems to be directed within the industry, so is this new era of theatre-goers just not that interested in the awards commonly thought to be the Oscars of theatreland?

How do I know all this? Because I was there. I scored a last minute invitation with a friend whose debt I will forever be in. Although, that said, there was a certain lack of buzz about the whole event last night. Perhaps it was because it was slightly overshadowed by press and public attention on the Empire awards next door, or perhaps it has just lost some of its untouchable sparkle. Nonetheless, I did spend some time at the interval schmoozing with a certain theatre producer and hoping desperately to find a theatre impresario to offer me my perfect job. Alas not. The whole event passed rapidly by without so much as a offer of work experience. I feel a little like a lemon at a jam convention at these events. I know I am of the same food group but I’m just not one of the people that make the magic happen. I know everyone by name and face, but no one knows me. I know I ought to network, but it’s all so uncomfortable, and aside from that, so much wine was consumed last night that it was hardly the time to talk business.

Never mind. There is always the hope that next year I will be attending as a fully-fledged professional art correspondent or critic. Or even playwright.