taken from the Guardian
Press Coverage after the awards
From the Olivier Awards’ press room
Nicola Walker, Best Actress in a Supporting Role
How does it feel to have won the award?
Really nice, I’m shaking!Tell us about the process of bringing the book to life on stage.
We did a week’s workshop before we started rehearsing, and Marianne Elliott and Scott Graham from Frantic Assembly said: ‘Look, we don’t know how we’re going to do this, we don’t know what physical language we’re going to use, we’re just going to play with that for a week’. My dad picked me up in the car after that week and I said to him ‘I’ve just had the best week’s work I’ve ever done in my life’ because they just didn’t stop having ideas and they kept asking you to do things you’d never done before… it was really exciting.Did it continue to evolve?
Yes, it’s different every night because you enter Christopher’s world. That’s all we worked towards, all the time, all anyone ever talked about: creating Christopher’s world. And once you do that, you stop looking at yourself. So you’ve got this amazing anti-hero by the end of the show and what amazed me every night is that people would be standing up clapping for this very awkward boy and they wanted him to win – and he does win.
From the Guardian
Walker, who said the last prize she won was a swimming badge at school, admitted that the early workshopping of the play had been “absolutely terrifying.” She added: “We all felt that we were doing something really important which sounds like a cliche but is true. It was something we really, really cared about, we were part of a proper company in the old-fashioned sense.”
From the Stage
Nicola Walker, who won this year’s best supporting actress prize at the Oliviers for her role in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, has revealed the physical performance required for her part “absolutely terrified” her during rehearsals.
Walker said she sees herself as a “words-on-a-page actress” and found the movement involved in the play, which was created by physical theatre company Frantic Assembly, hard to adjust to during the first few days of the workshop for the show.
She said: “I’d never done anything like this before – I’m a words-on-a-page actress. It absolutely terrified me. In the first two days I thought ‘I’ve got to get out of this, I can’t do this. They’re making me climb on people’s shoulders and flipping me over.’ ”
Walker added: “By the last day you think ‘this is all I want to do.’ It was really difficult and exciting and completely different to what any of us had done before – maybe apart from Luke [Treadaway] who it looked to me was born to do that theatrical and physical work.”
Also from the Stage is this rather ungracious comment
Only one of the theatre awards, in fact, went to a performance that wasn’t also seen in a commercial run: Nicola Walker, who took the award for best supporting performance in a play for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time at the National’s Cottesloe, but didn’t transfer with the play to the West End. Could it be that SOLT’s expanded judging panel were unaware of this fact when they voted for her?
Then again, a different writer from the Stage commiserated with us Nicola fans about the lack of screen time given to her
I was surprised that ….. Nicola Walker, winner of best actress in a supporting role, confined to the ‘other winners’ section of the coverage. It’s surprising Walker wasn’t given more of a fanfare, particularly as she is currently one of the stars of ITV’s Scott and Bailey, and therefore a familiar face to an ITV audience – and a part of Curious Incident’s seven-Olivier award success story.
From the Daily Record
[Luke Treadaway’s] co-star Walker said she could not put her finger on what made the National Theatre play so special.
Speaking backstage, she said: “I wish I knew because if I knew then maybe I would feel certain that I would get another go at a play like Curious.
“I don’t know, it’s something very magical.”
Go to the next page to read all about those wrist bands, the T shirt and a wonderful little treat we have for you 😀
Thanks for posting the photos of Nicola & Barnaby they are fantastic
Love these photos – thanks Lucy/@Liga for sharing!
You’re very welcome! 🙂
Wonderful! Funny speech too. Hopefully they will show the National Theatre Live recording of the play again after this. Does anyone know what the red wristband stands for?
The wristbands were prepared by fans of Nicola who greeted her on the red carpet. We have a full report of what went down which should be coming soon. Our special correspondents are still recovering from the overdose of excitement they experienced yesterday outside the Royal Opera House :D!
Oh wow, that’s so lovely, can’t wait to hear your report!
I was thrilled to see that Nicola won, it made my day, just a shame we can’t see the video if her winning
I second that – congratulations to Nicola, what a great achievement! And an amazing night all round for The Curious Incident. Shame it wasn’t broadcast live on TV but it’s been good listening on Radio 2!
Congratulations to Nicola for best supporting actress. Looking forward to the next theatre perfirmance!
Congratulations to Nicola on the Olivier Awards nomination, that’s a great achievement in itself! It’s a shame she wasn’t able to transfer to the West End production of Curious but I’m glad I got to see the play in the Cottesloe – especially as it’s going to be rebuilt soon as part of the NT’s makeover. Hope Nicola enjoys the Awards evening!
Well it’s about time… let’s hope Nicola has something to add to her trophy cabinate!