The Women's Prize for Playwriting is the leading award for female and non-binary playwrights in the UK and Ireland.
The Women’s Prize for Playwriting was founded by Ellie Keel and Paines Plough to redress the balance of voices reaching main stages in the UK and Ireland. The 2025 winner will receive a prize of £20,000, an option for the stage by Ellie Keel Productions, the Women's Prize for Playwriting, Paines Plough and Sheffield Theatres as well as a publishing deal with Concord Theatricals.
The inaugural prize received 1,163 submissions and was jointly won by two plays, Reasons You Should(n't) Love Me by Amy Trigg and You Bury Me by Ahlam. Reasons You Should(n't) Love Me is a one-woman play exploring growing up with spina bifida and navigating love, your twenties and loneliness. It premiered at the Kiln Theatre, London, reopening the theatre after the pandemic in May 2021. It toured the UK before returning to the Kiln Theatre in November. You Bury Me is a political play set in Cairo about a generation emerging from national trauma, determined to live and love freely. It had a reading at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2022 and opened at the Bristol Old Vic in February 2023 before touring to the Edinburgh Lyceum and London's Orange Tree Theatre.
The 2021 Prize was awarded to Consumed by Karis Kelly. The play is a tinderbox of four generations of Irish women coming together for a 90th birthday with explosive results. The winner was selected from 850 submissions and is currently in development.
The 2023 Prize was awarded to Intelligence by Sarah Grochala. [1] The play explores the life of computer pioneer Ada Lovelace and her struggles being recognised in a male-dominated world. Chosen from over 1000 submissions, Intelligence is in development.
The 2025 Prize is currently open for submissions and will close on 22nd April 2025.
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Amy Trigg | Reasons You Should(n't) Love Me | Winner |
| Ahlam | You Bury Me | ||
| Chinonyerem | Paradise Street | Shortlisted | |
| Eve Leigh | Red Sky at Night | ||
| Liv Hennessy | Colostrum | ||
| Miriam Battye | The Virgins | ||
| ...blackbird hour | Babirye Bukilwa | ||
| 2021 [2] | Karis Kelly | Consumed | Winner |
| Abi Zakarian | Mountain Warfare | Shortlisted | |
| Alison Carr | Birdie | ||
| Isabella Leung | A Bouffon Play About Hong Kong | ||
| Isley Lynn | Furies | ||
| Lydia Luke | upright enuf | ||
| Paula B Stanic | 4 Decades | ||
| Somebody Jones | How I learned to Swim | ||
| 2023 | Sarah Grochala | Intelligence | Winner |
| Daisy Hall | Bellringers | Shortlisted | |
| Emma Gibson | Lumin | ||
| Shaan Shahota | The Angels Were Worms | ||
| Sonali Bhattacharyya | King Troll (The Fawn) |
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