THEATRE / Notices

Awards ceremonies tend to lean far more favourably towards tragedy (serious, emotional, difficult) than comedy (lightweight, inconsequential).

So, it was delightful to see Mark Rylance voted Best Actor at last Sunday's Olivier Awards. His Benedick in Much Ado about Nothing - alongside Janet McTeer's underrated Beatrice - was a high point of last year.

As for 20th-century comedy, B-Road Movie, the latest show from the multi- award-winning company Lip Service, will go on tour from May.

They will also be performing extracts from their previous show Withering Looks - a masterclass in comic technique - at a benefit in aid of the 1994 City of Drama at the Manchester Opera House this Sunday.

Edward Albee has won a Pulitzer prize (his third) for his play Three Tall Ladies. Neither of the previous two, incidentally, were for his most famous play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: the Pulitzer committee that year declared it ineligible because it didn't meet the requirement that the winning play should be uplifting.

This year, Albee was up against Tony Kushner whose Perestroika caused immense confusion among the judges. Had they or hadn't they already given it a prize - last year, as part of Angels in America?

After much debate and apologetic clarification, it emerged they hadn't. Kushner will have to make do with the reflected glory of Joseph Mydell's richly deserved Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor.