The Women’s Prize for Playwriting
The leading award for female and non-binary playwrights in the UK and Ireland.
In 2018, only 26% of new plays on main stages in Britain were by women. In 2020, we launched the Women’s Prize for Playwriting with producer Ellie Keel to address that inequality.
Since then, we have produced three of the winning plays, toured them around the country to sold-out venues and rave reviews, and reached over 40,000 audience members.
The winner of the 2025 prize, Sapling by Georgina Duncan, will receive its world premiere at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond and Sheffield Theatres in 2027.
Click here to visit the Women’s Prize for Playwriting website.
In its inaugural year, the prize was awarded to two writers: Amy Trigg for Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me and Ahlam for You Bury Me.
Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me received its first performances at Kiln Theatre in May-June 2021. The following year, it toured to twenty venues around the country, before returning for a second run at the Kiln in November 2022.
You Bury Me had a staged reading at Edinburgh International Fringe Festival in 2021, before embarking on a full tour to Bristol Old Vic, the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh and the Orange Tree Theatre in London in Spring 2023.
The 2021 prize was awarded to Karis Kelly for their play Consumed. In 2025, the play sold out its run at the Traverse at the Edinburgh Fringe, followed by a hit tour to Leeds, Guildford, Sheffield, Coventry, Belfast and London.
The 2023 prize was awarded to Sarah Grochala for Intelligence, and the 2025 prize was awarded to Georgina Duncan for Sapling.
2025 Finalists
Sapling by Georgina Duncan
THE (YELLOW) WALLPAPER by Phoebe Eclair-Powell
Fucking Jane Austen by Billie Esplen
THREE BOYS by Danielle James
THE ROOM by Manjinder Virk
2023 Finalists
Bellringers by Daisy Hall
LUMIN by Emma Gibson
Intelligence by Sarah Grochala
The Angels Were Worms by Shaan Shahota
King Troll (The Fawn) by Sonali Bhattacharyya
2021 Finalists
MOUNTAIN WARFARE by Abi Zakarian
Birdie by Alison Carr
A Bouffon Play About Hong Kong by Isabella Leung
FURIES by Isley Lynn
Consumed by Karis Kelly
upright enuf by lydia luke
4 Decades by Paula B Stanic
How I Learned to Swim by Somebody Jones
2020 Finalists
Paradise Street by Chinonyerem Odimba
Red Sky at Night by Eve Leigh
You Bury Me by Ahlam
Colostrum by Liv Hennessy
The Virgins by Miriam Battye
…blackbird hour by babirye bukilwa
Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me by Amy Trigg
