Sarah Snook wins prestigious Olivier Award for The Picture of Dorian Gray
Sarah Snook has added to her considerable awards haul with a win at the prestigious Olivier Awards, which recognises achievement in British theatre.
The Australian actor won best actress in a drama for her performance in The Picture of Dorian Gray, in which she plays 26 roles including Oscar Wilde’s eponymous character.
“It’s an incredible honour to be on the stage in the West End and this is not something that I thought would come along with that. It’s billed as a one-woman show but it’s not,” Snook said.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“It’s the crew who are on stage with me all the time every night and they are a vital and constant support and inspirational. So thank you to the crew for being there in this show with me.
“A huge immeasurable thank you to Kip Williams and your very big brain and your specificity and precision and your inspiration and I just thank my lucky stars I get to play inside that mad world you’ve created every night.”
Snook beat Laura Donnelly, Sophie Okonedo, Sheridan Smith and Sarah Jessica Parker in her category. The Picture of Dorian Gray’s costume designer Marg Howell also won an Olivier.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a Sydney Theatre Company production which opened in 2020 with Eryn Jean Norville in the role. Norville won a Sydney Theatre Award and the show toured Adelaide, Melbourne and Auckland and had two encore seasons in Sydney.
Snook took over the role on the West End when the London season opened in January, presented by Michael Cassel. The production will next move to Broadway.
The Picture of Dorian Gray was the first in a trilogy for director Kip Williams, which uses multimedia elements to tell the story. Snook interacts with a crew of camera operators on stage, often performing directly into the camera with those images projected onto moving screens.
STC’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, starring Ewen Leslie and Matthew Backer, was staged with the same format, and the final show in the trilogy will be Dracula with Zahra Newman, due to open in July.
Williams last week resigned as artistic director of the STC after eight years at the helm. He has been with the company for 13 years.
Elsewhere at the Olivier Awards, Mark Gatiss won best actor in a drama for The Motive and the Cue, winning in a stacked category that also included Andrew Scott in Vanya and James Norton in A Little Life.
A revival of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Sunset Boulevard was the big winner of the night, taking out seven categories including musical revival and acting gongs for Nicole Scherzinger and Tom Francis.
Vanya won the award for best play revival, best new play went to Dear England, best new musical to Operation Mincemeat and best new entertainment or comedy play to Stranger Things: The First Shadow.
Snook has won this year Emmy, Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe awards for her performance as Shiv Roy in the final season of HBO drama Succession.
