‘Killing Eve‘ Star Jodie Comer Wins Top Acting Prize At Evening Standard Theatre Awards For London Stage Debut ‘Prima Facie’

12.12.2022 - 16:27 / deadline.com

Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) won the best actress prize at the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards for her West End debut performance playing a criminal barrister specialising in defending rapists — who is then sexually assaulted herself.

Comer won critical and public acclaim for the solo role in Prima Facie, which is written by Suzie Miller and directed by Justin Martin. James Bierman’s Empire Street Productions will launch the courtroom drama at Broadway’s Golden Theatre from April 11, 2023.

Stephen Graham (The Irishman), like Comer a Liverpudlian, presented Comer with the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress, named in honor of the star who died in 2009.

Comer told guests, who included Richardson’s mother Dame Vanessa Redgrave and sister Joely Richardson, that her experience in Prima Facie had been “utterly terrifying, having never trained,” added: “I didn’t know if I could execute this.”

However, she praised the production’s creative team for supporting her, “and now I want to do theater at every opportunity,” she added.

James McAvoy was named Best Actor for playing the title role in director Jamie Lloyd’s production of Cyrano de Bergerac. McAvoy was absent from the fun, intimate ceremony at West End theater land restaurant The Ivy, due to filming commitments in Rome.

James Graham (Sherwood) won Best Play for his political drama Best of Enemies, which played at the Young Vic Theatre and starred David Harewood portraying William F. Buckley and Charles Edwards as Gore Vidal. The show has now transferred to the Noel Coward Theatre, with Zachary Quinto taking over as Vidal.

Josie Rourke and Martha Plimpton were on hand to present Lynette Linton with the award for best director. Linton, also artistic chief at