The Women’s Prize for Playwriting
Paines Plough, Ellie Keel Productions and 45North launched the Women’s Prize for Playwriting in 2020 to support female, UK and Ireland-based writers.
The mission of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting is to address the inequality in the number of plays written by women and men on major stages in the UK. In 2018, only 26% of new plays on main stages in Britain were by women.
The winning playwright receives prize money in respect of an exclusive option for Ellie Keel Productions and Paines Plough to co-produce the winning play.
This prize is designed to level the playing field, and to honour and celebrate the work of female and non-binary playwrights.
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, which previewed at Belgrade Theatre in Coventry in July 2025, before a sell-out run at the Traverse at the Edinburgh Fringe and a hit tour to Leeds Playhouse, Sheffield Theatres and the Yvonne Arnaud, Guildford. This was followed by a 2026 tour to the Lyric Belfast and the Park Theatre in London.
The 2023 prize was awarded to Sarah Grochala for Intelligence, and the 2025 prize was awarded to Georgina Duncan for Sapling, both of which are now in development.
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
