Maria Friedman, who is nominated for the coveted Best Director accolade at this year’s Olivier Awards with MasterCard after making her directorial debut with Merrily We Roll Along in 2013, has hinted that another collaboration with the Menier Chocolate Factory could be in the offing.
The three-time Olivier Award-winning actress attended Monday’s nominations announcement at London’s Rosewood Hotel with the Menier’s Artistic Director David Babani. Talking about her future as a director, she said: “I’m dying to do another directing thing. I’ve found something that I love, love, love to do.”
Babani, who has been at the helm of the London Bridge venue since it opened in 2004, confirmed that he was eager to reunite with Friedman on a future project, saying “we just have to work out what it is”.
The actress-turned-director, whose production of the Stephen Sondheim musical later transferred to the West End, is up against Lyndsey Turner (Chimerica), Susan Stroman (The Scottsboro Boys) and Richard Eyre (Ghosts) in the fight for Best Director at this year’s ceremony.
Friedman told Official London Theatre that she was “thrilled” to be nominated for her first shot at directing and, despite winning critical acclaim for her performances on stage, suggested that she felt a more natural affinity to her recent behind-the-scenes role. “I’m not nearly as confident as a performer than I am as a director. I think the neurosis that belongs to a performer is so entrenched in me, you’re always worried that you’re not good enough. But because you’re casting these exceptional people, you’re put in a position as a director where as long as you let them do what they do best, you’re going to be okay.”
Friedman wasn’t the only nominee at this week’s announcement to receive a nod for exploring a different aspect of theatre for the first time.
Cush Jumbo, who recently turned her hand to writing, is nominated in the Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre category for her debut play Josephine And I, which played at the Bush Theatre last summer.
The actress, who was nominated in 2013 for her charismatic performance as Marc Antony in Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female Julius Caesar at the Donmar Warehouse, found it “absolutely spine-tinglingly shocking” to be recognised for a second year running, and even more so for the one-woman play she wrote and performed.
Talking about her experience of last year’s ceremony, she said: “The people in my category – Helen McCrory, Nicola Walker – they’re way beyond my pay grade, they’re very experienced, I never ever thought I’d win and I didn’t, but at the time when I was sitting there, I’d written Josephine but I hadn’t even taken it into rehearsals yet. If I had ever thought sitting there that I’d be back for Josephine And I, I just don’t think I would have believed it.”
Jumbo’s solo show is up against Fleabag, written by fellow performer-turned-playwright Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Oh What A Lovely War at the Theatre Royal Stratford East and the Tricycle Theatre’s production of Handbagged, which is soon to arrive in the West End.
Though, unlike Friedman and Jumbo, Zrinka Cvitešić’s role in Tony Award-winning musical Once saw her stay in the realm of performing, the part for which she made the Best Actress in a Musical list marked her first ever appearance on the London stage.
Talking about her debut and the time she has spent in the show over the past 12 months, Cvitešić said: “I came here a year ago and I was nobody on the West End stage and in a year I got four nominations and two awards and now this. It’s weird, because now I’m somebody. It’s a dream.”
The Croatian actress, who faces opposition in the form of The Light Princess star Rosalie Craig, Merrily We Roll Along actress Jenna Russell and The Sound Of Music’s Charlotte Wakefield, spoke about what her nomination would mean to her fellow actors back at home. “It’s so important for the whole community in Croatia. Nobody has ever done anything like this ever before. I’m getting 20 messages on Facebook/Twitter each day from young Croatian actors saying ‘Thank you for fulfilling our dream, thank you for giving us hope’. That’s what matters to me most.”
Cvitešić, Friedman and Jumbo will have to wait until 13 April to find out whether they will rise triumphant in their respective categories. The Olivier Awards 2014 with MasterCard will take place for a third year running at the capital’s iconic Royal Opera House, where nominees, theatre stars and special guests will gather to celebrate the very best of London theatre in the past year.
