For the second successive year, That Theatre Company and Why Not Theatre have been nominated for CPHCulture awards, underlining their status as two of Denmark’s premier Anglophone theatre groups.

That Theatre Company has followed up on its 2015 best foreign theatre performance (Årets udenlandske stykke) nomination for ‘Marathon’ with another for ‘Proof’, its autumn play, vindicating its founder Ian Burns’ decision to give David Auburn’s 2000 Pulitzer Prize-winning play its Danish premiere.

Two noms for Why Not
However, Why Not Theatre has arguably surpassed its occasional partner with two nominations for ‘Vita and Virginia’, and neither were for best foreign theatre performance, an inaugural award in 2015, which was restricted to Copenhagen premieres.

Why Not Theatre co-founder Sue Hansen-Styles has been nominated as best actress in a leading role, while the play has been shortlisted for best classic performance.

Evolving awards
That Theatre will face stiff competition to win an award, which last year was won by ‘Sunlight’, from nine other productions (see below).

Hamletfestivalen, which enjoyed a momentous year to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare, has slightly better odds of just 6/4 to win an award, as two of its plays – ‘Measure for Measure’ and ‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona’ – have been nominated for ‘Årets gæstespil’ (best guest performance of the year) alongside three others.

Constantly evolving, the CPHCulture awards this year include far more categories than last year, although several – including best performance by a foreign singer, which was won by Elton John for 2015 – have been discontinued.