Nominees and VIP guests, all dressed to the nines, were greeted on the red carpet with cocktails and canapés, mingling to music by the vivacious saxophonist, Judy Brown, and harpist, Jane Theron. Lara Bye, a previous Fleur du Cap winner and nominee, directed the onstage event that was given a uniquely Capetonian vibe this year with performances by David Kramer and his Breyani Band, the Limited Edition Drummers, the Gugulethu Tenors, Thembi Mtshali-Jones and the world champion break dance duo, Jed and Duane Lawrence, also known as the Ubuntu BBoys. Entertaining the illustrious crowd in between the awarding of prizes was the hilarious MC, Alan Committee, with the elegant television personality, Charlene Truter, his co-host.

The Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards is the premier event of its kind in South Africa. At its inception in 1965 it was known as the Three Leaf Awards, becoming the Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards in 1978 when it was named after one of Distell’s leading wine brands. Every year prizes are given to outstanding individuals for theatre excellence, specifically focusing on professional theatre productions staged in the Cape Town Metropole and surrounds. The judges are made up of local critics, journalists, writers and drama educators, who base their decisions on having viewed close to 100 productions over twelve months, in several venues in and around the city. The panel consists of Marianne Thamm, Mariana Malan, Marina Nel, Peter Tromp, Len Ashton, Beverley Brommert, Wayne Muller, Herman van der Westhuizen, Zane Henry, Jill Makram, Denise Bester and Conrad Sidego, the non-voting chairman.

London Road, a production directed by Lara Bye, scooped three awards for Robyn Scott as Best Actress, Ntomboxolo Makhutshi as Best Supporting Actress and Nicholas Spagnoletti for Best New SA Script. Woyzeck was acknowledged in two categories with Bongile Mantsai winning Best Supporting Actor and Leopold Senekal receiving the Fleur du Cap for Best Design (costumes and set). Pieter-Dirk Uys, who was awarded a coveted TEDDY in Berlin last month and a Naledi in Johannesburg last week, received his third major award of 2011 when he won the Fleur du Cap for Best Performance in a Revue or Cabaret for his role as Bambi Kellermann in F.A.K Songs and Other Struggle Anthems.

Each award carries a R15 000 cash prize and a silver medallion, making a Fleur du Cap one of the most coveted awards in the industry. Awards are given for musicals, comedy and drama productions. Special attention is paid to the entire artistic creation of a production which includes writing of new scripts, acting, directing plus the challenging technical and design elements.

The various category winners are as follows:

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR
Warrick Grier for Blackbird as Ray

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS
Robyn Scott for London Road as Rose

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Bongile Mantsai for Woyzeck as Drum Major

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Ntomboxolo Makhutshi for London Road as Stella

BEST DIRECTOR
Malcolm Purkey for The Girl in the Yellow Dress

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A ONE-PERSON SHOW
James Cairns for Dirt for various characters

BEST NEW SA SCRIPT
London Road - Nicholas Spagnoletti

ROSALIE VAN DER GUCHT PRIZE FOR NEW DIRECTORS
Christiaan Olwagen for Woza Andries

BEST PERFORMANCE IN MUSICAL
Ilse Klink for Mamma Mia! as Rosie

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A REVUE OR CABARET
Pieter-Dirk Uys for F.A.K Songs and Other Struggle Anthems as Bambi Kellermann

BEST DESIGN
Leopold Senekal for Costume and Prop Design for Aesop's Fables and for Costume and Set Design for Woyzeck

BEST STUDENT AWARD
De Klerk Oelofse from University of Stellenbosch (US)

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Mannie Manim

AWARD FOR INNOVATIVE CONTRIBUTION TO THEATRE
Klein Libertas Theatre in Stellenbosch

PEOPLES CHOICE AWARD
Members of the public voted online for their favourite production of 2010 by logging onto www.fdcawards.co.za between 28 February and 16 March. This award went to The Mechanicals production of Louis Nowra’s Cosi.