Joan of Arc fights Billie

Evening Standard Theatre Awards: the shortlist

In the best actor category, Charles Dance, praised for the performance of his life in Shadowlands, faces Robert Lindsay's star turn as Archie Rice in the Old Vic's much-lauded production of The Entertainer.

But both could be stumped by Mark Rylance's amusing country bumpkin in the comedy Boeing Boeing or Patrick Stewart's imposing Macbeth.

Nicholas de Jongh, the Evening Standard theatre critic and one of the judges, said: "In the 14 or 15 years on the panel, this is the best year for acting I can remember." The National Theatre is the top venue on the shortlist with half a dozen nominations, ranging from bitter-sweet Indian comedy Rafta, Rafta to The Emperor Jones, a story of dictatorship. War Horse, its current hit show, gets two chances at victory.

The Royal Shakespeare Company, Old Vic, Donmar and the Menier Chocolate Factory are also on the shortlist. The Chichester Festival's transfer of Macbeth has the biggest individual presence with three nominations.

One of the biggest decisions for the judges, who also included Georgina Brown of the Mail On Sunday, Susannah Clapp of The Observer, Benedict Nightingale of The Times and Charles Spencer of the Daily Telegraph, was exactly what constituted a play.

There were passionate calls to honour The Masque Of The Red Death by Punchdrunk at the Battersea Arts Centre even though it was by no means clear that it is a play in any conventional sense. A Disappearing Number, Simon McBurney and Complicite's dazzling exercise in making mathematics sexy, similarly defied boundaries.

Such was the range of talent that the judges this year made a special plea to publish the longlist.

The winner of the most promising playwright award receives £25,000 jointly donated by Lord Rothermere, the proprietor of the Evening Standard, and Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of American Vogue, in memory of her father Charles, a former editor of the newspaper who founded the awards.

The judges have again elected to present a special award. It will be announced at the lunchtime ceremony compered by Richard Wilson at the Savoy on 27 November.

Last year's recipient was the Tricycle Theatre for its pioneering work in political theatre.

The Evening Standard Theatre Awards were launched in 1955. Past winners include Richard Burton, Judi Dench, Laurence Olivier, Jake Gyllenhaal and Nicole Kidman.