Jessica Hardwick, who played Young Woman in Perth Theatre's production of Knives in Hens has won Best Female Performance at the 2018 Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS). 

Announcing the award at Perth Theatre on Sunday 10 June, CATS judge Neil Cooper said:

"When Jessica Hardwick first came onstage in David Harrower’s remarkable play, Knives in Hens, she was as unrecognisable as she has been in pretty much everything she has done in her still short acting career. It’s not that Hardwick lacked charisma. Far from it. It’s just that she seems to possess an ability to shapeshift in a way that allows whatever character she’s playing to absorb her completely, yet still manages to stamp her personality all over it. As Harrower’s Young Woman, nameless and near inarticulate, Hardwick was utterly fearless in her embodiment of her, so the woman’s primal hunger for knowledge became a physical thing. It was in those moments that Hardwick’s emotional depth as an actress fired up the stage with an urgency that suggested she was willing to fly without a safety net.”

David Harrower's Scottish classic Knives in Hens was directed by Perth Theatre's artistic director, Lu Kemp. 

Click here for a full list of CATS 2018 winners