The Women’s Prize for Playwriting – produced by Ellie Keel Productions and Paines Plough – announces the five finalist scripts for its 2025 Award, selected from a record-breaking 1,275 submissions.

The winner, chosen by a judging panel chaired by Indhu Rubasingham (Director and Co-Chief Executive of the National Theatre) will be announced at a ceremony at @sohoplace on Monday 9 February 2026.

The finalist plays are:

• 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

Launched in 2019, the Prize has championed female and non-binary playwrights, and campaigns for their plays to be presented on national stages in the UK and Ireland. Open to English-language plays running over 60 minutes, the Prize offers its First Prize winner £20,000 alongside an option for Ellie Keel Productions, Paines Plough, and Sheffield Theatres to co-produce the work. The prize is sponsored by Samuel French Ltd, a Concord Theatricals company, the official publishing partner of the prize.

The 2025 Finalists

SAPLING by Georgina Duncan

Belfast, 1990. 16 year old Gerry Flynn strives for normality during the last gasps of The Troubles but the events of one day shatter everything. His brother’s memorial garden is destroyed, his killer released from prison, and the arrival of an enigmatic stranger, Ryan, forces Gerry to confront the haunting dilemma: is Ryan the solution to his problems or the reason they exist in the first place?

Georgina Duncan is a working class writer and actor from East Lancashire, now based in London. As a playwright, her work has been both shortlisted and longlisted for various playwriting competitions including BOLD Theatre, Theatre Royal Haymarket, Papatango, Theatre503 International Prize and Druid Theatre. In 2024 she was commissioned to write a new play, Penalty for Improper Use, for LAMDA’s MishMash Festival. The play was then subsequently selected to have a rehearsed reading at Theatre503. Georgina debuted and performed her one woman show ASBO BOZO at Riverside Studios.

THE (YELLOW) WALLPAPER by Phoebe Eclair-Powell

Alison is writing an adaptation of The Yellow Wallpaper or is it writing her? A horror show about the horror show of motherhood.

Phoebe Eclair-Powell is a writer from South East London. Her plays include Shed: Exploded View (winner of the Bruntwood Prize), Fury (winner of the Tony Craze Award and runner-up for the Verity Bargate Prize), Dorian (co-adapted with Owen Horsley), Harm, Epic Love and Pop Songs, One Under, Wink, Coal Eaters, Glass Hands, and These Bridges, For television, her credits include Hollyoaks, Two Weeks to Live, Harm, The Road Trip, All Her Fault, Tommy and Tuppence; and for film, Better the Blood.

FUCKING JANE AUSTEN by Billie Esplen

A time-travelling Jane Austen and her lesbian lover must convince a dying Austen scholar to help them reveal Jane’s sexuality to the world.

Billie Esplen is a playwright and screenwriter. Her debut play, Cowboys and Lesbians, which she also directed, was a sell-out hit at Edinburgh Fringe in 2023. It went on to sell out its entire run at the Park Theatre in 2024, as well as a transfer to the Wardrobe Theatre in Bristol. The play is published by Salamander Street, and has a continuing life internationally in student productions. Billie has subsequently written on commission for the Park Theatre’s community company. Her work for television includes Script Editor on Dolly’s Alderton’s upcoming Netflix adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and on BBC’s Miss Austen.

THREE BOYS by Danielle James

Three choir boys, learning what it means to love and be loved for the very first time, realise that they have all fallen in love with the same person – the priest that is abusing them.

Danielle James is an Irish playwright and performer based in London. Her writing has been shortlisted for the Bill Cashmore Award (people watching people…), the Theatre503 International Playwriting Prize (Schizogenesis), and long-listed for the Bruntwood Playwriting Prize (Three Boys). Her short film EYE won Best Northern Film at the WomenX Festival 2025. She was a part of the Royal Court Writers Group in 2024, and the Dublin Theatre Festival Next Stage Cohort in 2025. She was a recipient of an Acorn Bursary from An Grianán Theatre, and funding from the Arts Council of England. She is currently developing work with Royal Court Theatre, Dublin Theatre Festival and Dublin Fringe. Her work has previously been seen at Riverside Studios, Camden People’s Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre.

THE ROOM by Manjinder Virk

The Room is set in a fictional writers room on a successful TV show. The room starts to unravel for Charanjeet, the only writer of colour after an unexpected incident.

Manjinder Virk is an award-winning actress, writer and director. As a writer, her first play Glow (Theatre Centre) for young people has been studied by GCSE Drama. She recently completed a writer’s attachment at the National Theatre developing a new play and has made two art films for the Stories That Made Us: Roots, Resilience & Representation exhibition (Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry). As an actress, her television credits include Midsomer Murders (as series regular Kam Karimore), Britz, The Arbos (nomination for Best Actress and Newcomer at British Independent Film Awards), Trigger Point, Shetland, Monroe. Her selected acting credits include A Kind of People (Royal Court Theatre) and Dance Nation (Almeida Theatre). As a filmmaker she has made ten short films including Out of Darkness, Things We Never Said, and Dekho.