An up-and-coming director training at Staffordshire’s New Vic Theatre has been celebrating this week after his production scooped a surprise victory at the Olivier awards.

The Mountaintop, directed and developed by New Vic trainee James Dacre, was the surprise winner of Best New Play when this year’s theatre Oscars were handed out on Sunday. 

James with Jude Law, The Mountaintop actress Lorraine Burroughs, writer Katori Hall and The Mountaintop actor David Harewood.

The play – an imagined account of Martin Luther King's last evening before his 1968 assassination – was spotted by Dacre whilst studying in America.

He brought the play and it’s young playwright Katori Hall to the UK, and directed its world premiere at the 65-seat Theatre503, above a pub in Battersea. From there it transferred immediately to the West End, where it won glowing reviews and nightly standing ovations.

The team behind the show – including actors David Harewood and Lorraine Burroughs – were also nominated for a further five major theatre awards.

One of the UK’s most promising young creative talents, Dacre is currently training at the theatre-in-the-round on the ITV Theatre Director Scheme.

James, who will be making his New Vic directorial debut in the summer, said: “What an inspiring surprise it was for us all on Sunday to see the play receive such recognition. I’m enormously proud of Katori and our incredible team.”

Receiving her award from Jude Law, Hall thanked Dacre for taking the play on: "This was a story about a person that crosses lines of colour, class, countries and continents and I want to thank the London audience for teaching me that this is a story that needs to be heard about the world."

The winners of the 2010 Laurence Olivier Awards were announced at a glamorous ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel on 21 March, and were attended by the leading lights of London theatre.

The Olivier Awards are recognised internationally as the highest honour in British theatre and are considered to be the UK theatre industry equivalent of the BAFTA Awards for television and film.