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Hiran wins best actor at Olivier Awards; pays tribute to SL

11 Apr 2022

Sri Lankan actor Hiran Abeysekera won the award for Best Actor at the Olivier Awards on Sunday (10), and paid tribute to his home country of Sri Lanka in his acceptance speech, saying the country was going through a “tough time now... I think of you and wish I was there with you”. The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply the Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London, with this year’s awards held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Sunday. Abeysekera won the award for his performance as the leading man on the West-End play Life of Pi, which also scooped a host of top prizes. The Life of Pi production, based on Yann Martel’s Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name, scooped the best play prize as part of its haul. The story follows a teenager stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean with a tiger on board. Life of Pi, a philosophical novel by Yann Martel, was also adapted into a film in 2012 which starred Suraj Sharma and won four Oscars. Lolita Chakrabarti, who created the stage adaptation, said its success was a “testament to the story” created by Martel, describing it as an “absolute modern classic”. The play’s lead, Hiran Abeysekera, was named best actor, while the seven actors who play the Tiger shared the best supporting actor prize. Abeysekera said taking on the role was initially “quite a scary proposition” as the book is so beloved, but said they knew they had “something special” after their first dress run. The Olivier Awards are recognised internationally as the highest honour in British theatre, equivalent to the BAFTA Awards for film and television, and the BRIT Awards for music. The Olivier Awards are considered equivalent to Broadway’s Tony Awards and France’s Molière Award.  The celebration of London theatre, opera, and dance returned to the Royal Albert Hall for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic shut down the country’s theatres weeks before the scheduled 2020 Oliviers show. Kit Harington, Tom Felton, Emma Corrin, and Jonathan Pryce were among the stars who walked the sustainable green carpet, made from reusable grass, before the glitzy, music-filled ceremony. (With inputs from Agencies)


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