Olivier Awards "hugely sorry" for "oversight" after missing Sir Peter Hall out of In Memorium section
There was uproar on Twitter after the Royal Shakespeare Society founder was left out
The Olivier Awards organisers have released a statement apologising for the "huge oversight" in omitting Royal Shakespeare Society founder Sir Peter Hall from the In Memoriam at Sunday night's 2018 awards ceremony.
Numerous industry pros and theatre devotees had taken to Twitter during the broadcast to express their dismay at the fact that Hall, the former director of the National Theatre who passed away in September 2017, was not included in the segment.
"I'm flabbergasted to hear that #SirPeterHall and #TimPigottSmith were forgotten," tweeted choreographer Sir Matthew Bourne.
"Disgraceful that the Olivier Awards forgot to mention the passing of Sir Peter Hall and Tim Pigott Smith," veteran actor Christopher Biggins added.
Though it was later confirmed that Pigott-Smith had been mentioned in the previous year's broadcast, there was no clear explanation as to why Hall had been omitted, until the official Twitter account for the awards released a statement on Monday morning.
More like this
"We are hugely sorry for the oversight of leaving Sir Peter Hall out of our In Memoriam during last night's Olivier Awards with Mastercard 2018," the statement read. "Peter, founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company and director of the National Theatre, was a wonderful and inspiring figure within the UK theatre industry and is sorely missed."
The organisers also pointed out that they had dimmed the lights across West End theatres in tribute when he passed away on 11th September 2017. See the statement in full below.
Check out the full list of Olivier Awards winners here.
