What's Eligible

Michael Billington on what's wrong with the Olivier Awards in London:

For a start, the Oliviers are based on the dated notion that nothing really exists until it has been given the seal of metropolitan approval. I'm delighted that Black Watch won four awards. But this is a show that opened in Edinburgh in the summer of 2006, has been seen all over the UK and the world, and is only now eligible for an Olivier because it did a season at the Barbican. Had it played, as was always a possibility, in some non-official venue such as a converted warehouse or barracks, it would presumably have been excluded.