Review of 2014 - Best Play: Ballyturk, Enda Walsh

Ballyturk is like Waiting For Godot an acid. 

Performed superbly by a cast of three, Enda Walsh's Ballyturk was loud and physical, but there was an aching tenderness beneath the pulsing 80s score, the kind of sadness that only Mr Walsh can encapsulate.

When it opened at the National, the play received mixed reviews, with many critics feeling that it was too difficult to understand. But that was the problem: it wasn't until two, three weeks after I saw the show that I felt I had a remote grasp on what happened, and many of the reviews were just published too quickly. Like The Drowned Man, this is a play that demands concentration, everything is symbolic, and you get out only what you put in.

Unlike a sprawling, three hour theatrical marathon, Ballyturk is a sprint to the end, and while you may be exhausted by the curtain call, nothing can quite beat that feeling of crossing the finish line. 

Review of 2014 - Best Overall Theatre: The Almeida Theatre, Islington

When Rupert Goold took over as the artistic director of London's Almeida Theatre, he promised that the two words to describe his upcoming job would be risk and vision. 

It's fitting then, that in his first season there was a post-apocalyptic play about pop-culture, a "future-history" play about the reign of Charles III , a verbatim piece exploring the 2011 London Riots, a stripped down, metatheatrical retelling of a Thornton Wilder classic and to top it off a modern-dress Shakespeare production. 

The Almeida had always been popular to those who knew about it (for many productions, tickets are gold dust) , but Goold not only brought it to the 21st century, he did so with a sense of style and vitality that we will hopefully see more of over the coming years. Take his American Psycho - by casting Matt Smith in the title role, Goold exposed thousands of young audience members to the type of drama they just don't teach in schools.

We'd like to wish Rupert, the brilliant front of house team and what we're sure is a brilliant backstage crew the very best for what we're sure is going to be a very, very good year for the Almeida.