Olivier Awards

Two new postcards that I picked up recently at the National Theatre in London are these Olivier Awards promos for two of the theatre’s biggest hits, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and the phenomenon that is War Horse.

This year’s Olivier Awards (the British equivalent of America’s TONY Awards) include an Audience Award for the best show, chosen by the public. Both of these shows were in the shortlist but didn’t make the final four. These postcards were produced to advertise the award (and, of course, the shows) and encourage voters to pin their colours either or both masts. Although the initial voting has passed these are still a nice pair of postcards and the first I’ve seen advertising these particular productions.

The first, for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, features the main image used for the show for some time here in the UK and for the Broadway transfer in 2014: Luke Treadaway (who originated the lead role in both of these shows but is no longer appearing) is photographed as ‘Christopher’ standing on a grid-like stage with the outline of the titular dog chalked by his feet, a garden pitchfork embedded therein. The front of the card also shows the details of the voting, as does the back, which is otherwise plain save for the official logo. 

The second, for War Horse, is based on similar lines, with an image of the show and the tagline, “War Horse Needs You” (a riff on the famous Alfred Leete First World War campaign featuring Lord Kitchener pointing directly out from his poster, declaring that he “Wants You” to join the country’s army). The reverse is a little more interesting than it’s stablemate with a nice poppy illustration, an original drawing by the show’s designer Rae Smith.