Jersey actor bags prestigious theatre award

Tuesday 23 August 2016

A show co-created and performed by local actor Craig Hamilton has been awarded the esteemed Scotsman Fringe First award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Running for over 40 years, the Scotsman Fringe Firsts are considered the most prestigious and sought-after awards in the festival and are designed to reward "outstanding" new writing debuting at the festival.

Commenting on winning the award, Mr Hamilton, who is a former member of the Jersey Arts Centre youth theatre, said: “A list of previous Fringe First winners contains practically every person or theatre to have ever influenced or inspired me to make theatre. To join this list is an absolute honour.”

It was the show 'Tank' which won Breach Theatre this impressive accolade. The piece, which Guardian reviewer Lyn Gardner described as “cleverly pitched, often comic” and “multi-layered”, is inspired by the NASA-funded experiment in the 1960’s where Stanford University attempted to communicate with dolphins.

Mr Hamilton has been involved with the theatre company since January and, like everyone in the company, collaborated in the making and writing of the show:

“Tank is a piece we are immensely proud of. Writing and making this show was certainly not without its difficulties; we arrived in Edinburgh grossly under-prepared. Our main hope was ‘I hope no one really hates it’, and yet somehow the show came together. This is a testament to the group of people I had the pleasure of working with.”

Tank's run at the Fringe finished on Saturday but it is transferring the the New Diorama Theatre in Central London from September 6th - 10th.

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