DRUID AND playwright Enda Walsh won the Edinburgh Fringe First Award for Penelope, which is currently running at the Traverse Theatre in the Scottish capital.
This is the third time in four years the Galway company, together with Mr Walsh, has won a Fringe First Award, making it a hat-trick of theatrical successes.
Penelope is currently running at the Traverse Theatre as part of Culture Ireland’s annual showcase at the Edinburgh festivals. It is directed by Mikel Murfi.
The duo’s previous collaborations, The Walworth Farce (2007 ) and The New Electric Ballroom (2008 ), were both recipients of the prestigious award for outstanding new writing.
For Druid artistic director Garry Hynes, winning at Edinburgh is particularly satisfying, as the city has long been a good place for the Galway company.
“Edinburgh was the city for Druid’s first international tour in 1980,” she said. “Thirty years ago, on that visit, we won the Fringe First and today it is just as thrilling as it was back then, it’s a real testament to Druid, Enda, Mikel, and the cast that we’ve won our third award in four years performing these extraordinary plays.”
Eugene Downes, chief executive of Culture Ireland also welcomed the award. “Once again, Edinburgh is proving the perfect global showcase for Enda’s distinctive brilliance, vividly realised in Druid’s staging,” he said.
Penelope was a sell-out hit when it premiered in Druid Lane Theatre at this year’s Galway Arts Festival and received rave reviews and standing ovations. Following its Edinburgh run, it will be performed at the Stage Theatre Festival in Helsinki, marking Druid’s debut on mainland Europe. It returns to Galway and Dublin before transferring to New York this autumn and to London and Washington in early 2011.
