Olivier Award win for Associate Lecturer Simon Harvey

Pride & Prejudice* (*Sort Of), co-directed by Associate Lecturer Simon Harvey, has won Best entertainment or comedy play at the 2022 Oliver Awards.

The Oliver Awards are recognised internationally as the highest honour in British theatre.

Simon shares the accolade with writer, co-director and performer Isobel McArthur. Their play beat out The Choir Man, Pantoland At The Palladium and The Shark is Broken to claim the esteemed award.

And there was further success for the play, with Christina Gordon and Tori Burgess both nominated in the Best actress in a supporting role category.

We caught up with Simon, who said “I am absolutely delighted that ‘Pride and Prejudice (Sort of)’ picked up the award for Best New Comedy at the Olivier’s.

“It’s a show which came out of the regional theatre sector and was made with a truly independent spirit; it’s fantastic for a sweary, irreverent, all female show to be recognised alongside some of the biggest players in the industry.”

Pride & Prejudice* (*Sort Of) injects Jane Austen’s classic novel with a blend of comedy and karaoke to create a truly original retelling of the British classic. As Arifa Akbar wrote in a 5* review for The Guardian, “However inconceivable a production it sounds, with its karaoke numbers and its silliness, it creates something new and joyous from the old.”

Congratulations to Simon and the rest of the creative team on an incredible achievement.