Place Prize Pantomime
The Latest News || Monday, 29 September, 2008
It's the type of gaffe that, were this the political arena, would almost certainly spell doom for the candidate who said it.
John Ashford, taking to the stage to announce the winner of the competition on Saturday night, called the competition "ridiculous" before another judge announced the actual winner of the £25,000 prize.
Considering Mr Ashford is soon to be the ex-Director of The Place he may have decided this was the appropriate time to admit that the competition as a whole is, in-fact, "ridiculous".
Adding fuel to the fire was the eventual winner, Adam Linder, and his work 'Fois Gras'. Over the previous ten performances, each of which receieves an audience vote, Mr Linder did not win any of them. Dam Van Huynh and 'Collision' won every single vote and picked up £10,000 into the bargain.
The judges, perhaps looking to show they were independent minded (or stupid to the point of madness), revolted against the public consensus and picked Mr Linder
In a statement the judges denied that they were completely useless, or words to that effect.
Should you wish to see Mr Linder's creation then you can catch about four seconds of it on The Place website or wait for it to start touring. Judging by the four second clip you'll be lucky if the work gets performed for the paying public ever again.
NB: The Place video, incredibly, gives you the option for either a low or high quality version. The High quality version makes YouTube look presentable to say nothing of the fact that the Place has chopped off the edges of their own on-screen graphics!
iPod™ Video