July 27, 2017
Murgon-born actor, playwright and director Leah Purcell has won another award.
Leah won Best Play at the Helpmann Awards on Monday night for “The Drover’s Wife”, beating competing entries from the State Theatre Company of South Australia, the Queensland Theatre and the Melbourne Theatre Company.
The award was presented at a gala ceremony held at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre.
Leah was also one of four nominees for Best Female Actor In A Play, which was won by Kate Mulvany.
The Drovers Wife won Leticia Caceres an award for best direction.
Mark Coles Smith took out Best Male Actor In A Play for his performance in the production.
The Helpmann Awards, named in honour of Sir Robert Helpmann, were established in 2001 by Live Performance Australia to recognise, celebrate and promote Australia’s live performance industry.
They are similar to the Tony Awards on Broadway and the Olivier Awards in London, and are given out annually.
The Helpmann awards are the most recent heaped on The Drover’s Wife, which is based on Leah’s interpretation of a Henry Lawson short story.
Earlier this year her re-imagining of Lawson’s story took out book of the year prize at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.
In May, Leah also won the Nick Enright Prize for playwriting.
