Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2019: Old Vic's gender-swapping Present Laughter liberated the play, says Andrew Scott

Matthew Warchus’s revival changed the gender of some of the characters in Coward’s 1939 play to enable a same-sex relationship to take centre stage.

Speaking on the red carpet at the 65th Evening Standard Theatre Awards, he said: “Because Coward was working under censorship at the time, he couldn't say some of the things that he may have wanted to say. So, now that we don't have censorship anymore, we decided to change some of the relationships, not just the male ones, but the female ones as well.

“It really liberated the play, and I think people were really, really delighted with it.”

Scott, who is on the shortlist for Best Actor, in partnership with Ambassador Theatre Group, played Garry in Noël Coward’s semi-autobiographical comedy at the Old Vic, directed by Matthew Warchus. Two of the characters had their genders switched, as well as three who were mentioned but not seen on stage.

The Standard’s five star review called this “Andrew Scott’s show” in which he gave a “virtuoso performance”.

Scott said that it feels “fantastic" to be on the shortlist for the award: “We had an amazing time making [Present Laughter]. It's lovely to be here and celebrate that.”

Scott is up against strong competition in the Best Actor category from Tom Hiddleston (Betrayal), K. Todd Freeman (Downstate), Francis Guinan (Downstate) and Wendell Pierce (Death of a Salesman).

This year's award ceremony is presented by The Good Fight actress Cush Jumbo. Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory are co-hosting alongside American Vogue editor-in-chief Dame Anna Wintour and the Evening Standard’s owner Evgeny Lebedev.

Scott’s Fleabag co-star Olivia Colman is among those familiar faces from stage and screen handing out awards, also including Ruth Wilson, Lashana Lynch, Taron Egerton, Glenda Jackson and Naomi Scott.

Read the 65th Evening Standard Theatre Awards shortlist in full

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