The actress Fiona Shaw was among the winners when the Irish Times/ESB Irish Theatre Awards for 2000 were presented at a ceremony in Dublin last night.
She won the Best Actress award for her performance in the Abbey Theatre production of Medea which was recently revived in London.
Over 550 guests attended the awards dinner, at which this year's Special Tribute award was presented to Mr Tony O Dalaigh, former director of the Dublin Theatre Festival, for his contribution to Irish theatre since the early 1960s.
Winners in other categories were: Peter Gowen (Best Actor for his performance in the Dublin Theatre Festival production of Bedbound by Enda Walsh); Stephen Brennan (Best Supporting Actor for the Abbey and Peacock production of A Life by Hugh Leonard); Suzanne Robert son (Best Supporting Actress for Abbey and Peacock production of Mrs Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw); Calixto Bieito (Best Director for Abbey and Peacock production of The Barbaric Comedies by Ramon Maria Del Valle-Inclan in a version by Frank McGuinness); Alfons Flores (Best Designer, set, for The Barbaric Comedies); Xavier Clot and Keith Yetton (Best Designer, Lighting for The Barbaric Comedies); Sinead Cuthbert (Best Designer, Costume, for the Theatreworks production of Mutabilitie by Frank McGuinness); Tom Murphy (Best New Play for The House, produced by Abbey and Peacock). The Best Theatre Company award went to the Abbey and Peacock and the Judges' Special Award to Team Theatre for 25 years of work in theatre in education.
Highlights of the awards ceremony will be screened on TV3 at 8.30 p.m. tonight, and detailed coverage and more photographs will appear in tomorrow's Irish Times.