Best Ensemble and Best Supporting Actress awards for The Last Return

27 March 2023

The Best Ensemble award recognised the work of the cast of The Last Return: Fiona Bell as Umbrella Woman, Anna Healy as Ticket Person, Bosco Hogan as Newspaper Man, Fionn Ó Loingsigh as Miltary Man and Naima Swaleh as Woman in Pink. Rebecca O’Mara joined the cast as Umbrella Woman for the show’s run at the Gate Theatre in Dublin last winter. Aidan Moriarty joined the cast as Military Man this spring for the show’s national tour.

Anna Healy won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in The Last Return as well as her work in Portia Coughlan (Abbey Theatre) and The Spin (Corcadorca Theatre Company, with the support of Backstage Theatre, Longford).

These are not the first awards for The Last Return. Sonya Kelly’s comedy already won a Scotsman Fringe First Award at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 and was a finalist for The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2022.

Bosco Hogan also received a special tribute award at last night’s ceremony in Dublin in recognition of his decades of work on the Irish stage while Druid Ensemble member Rory Nolan won the Best Actor award for An Octoroon (Abbey Theatre).

Anna Healy, Bosco Hogan and Rory Nolan will soon begin rehearsals with Druid for the recently announced DruidO’Casey: Sean O’Casey’s Dublin Trilogy. DruidO’Casey is the most ambitious production in the company’s history and will see them perform The Plough and the Stars, The Shadow of a Gunman and Juno and the Paycock as a play cycle in one day.

In the design categories at this year’s Irish Times Theatre Awards, two long-time Druid collaborators were also recognised: Best Movement went to David Bolger for Orfeo ed Euridice (Blackwater Valley Festival Opera) and Go to Blazes, with the company (CoisCéim Dance); and Best Soundscape went to Conor Linehan as well as Carl Kennedy, Olesya Zdorovetkska and Louis Lovett for The Tin Soldier (Gate Theatre and Theatre Lovett). David Bolger and Conor Linehan are members of the creative team for DruidO’Casey - David is the production’s Movement Director and Conor is the Composer and Musical Director.