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Women do the write stuff

Angela Kelly
3/12/2008

FEMALE writers obviously took note of actress Brenda Blethyn’s plea for more women to enter the Bruntwood Playwriting Competition – they have scooped three of this year’s four prizes.

It’s the second year in which the Bruntwood Competition for the Royal Exchange – backed by the Manchester-based property company – has been held, and it is now regarded as the country’s foremost arena for discovering and celebrating new theatre writing talent.

This latest competition attracted 1,000 entries – 60 per cent of which were from women. And, at a glittering awards ceremony at the Royal Exchange, the joint winners were unveiled as Naylah Ahmed for Butcher Boys, Vivienne Franzmann for Mogadishi, Fiona Peek for Salt and Andy Sheridan for Before the Echoes Die Away.

They received their awards at the ceremony hosted by actress and comedienne Jan Ravens, and in front of an audience including actors Robert Lindsay and Maxine Peake.

The joint winners are all first-time playwrights and will share a prize fund of £40,000. They will also receive a year-long programme of specialist help from the Royal Exchange to develop their scripts with a view to producing their plays at the theatre. In addition, leading UK independent theatre publishing firm Nick Hern Books will print the winning plays that receive a production at the Exchange Theatre.

The competition is open to writers of all levels of experience aged 18 and over from throughout Britain and Ireland.

Brenda Blethyn said: "I’m delighted we’ve had so many women entering the competition.

"Reading the scripts has been great fun and really highlighted how many talented writers we have in this country."

In fact, the judges were so impressed by the shortlist of nine plays they found it hard to separate the winners. Instead, they decided to increase the fund and award four joint prizes.

The judging panel’s chair, Richard Wilson, said "all of the winning plays had equal ambition, merit and style."

The competition was originally launched in 2005 and the first three winning entries – Pretend You Have Big Buildings by Ben Musgrave, Monster by Duncan Macmillan and The Cracks in My Skin by Phil Porter – all received full productions at the Exchange Theatre and major cash prizes.

Winners this year covered equally varied subject matter and approach. Butcher Boys is set in the Hussain and Son Halal Butchers in the heart of an inner city, in a predominantly Asian area.

Naylah Ahmed is currently a script editor/producer on the BBC’s Asian Network radio soap Silver Street, and Butcher Boys is her first full-length stage play.

Mogadishi takes place in an inner city school in which a teacher, Amanda, is accused of racial harassment. Writer Vivienne Franzmann is a drama teacher in a London comprehensive school.

Each scene in Fiona Peek’s play, Salt, takes place during a different course of a different meal shared by four old friends. Fiona – born in the Midlands, brought up in Halifax and now living in Brighton with her family – recently completed an MA in dramatic writing with distinction at the University of Sussex.

Before The Echoes Die Away is set in and around Manchester between 1984 and New Year’s Eve, 1999. Its author, Andy Sheridan, is currently an actor with credits including Jonah and Otto, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice and Henvy V for the Royal Exchange.

His TV credits include writing for Cold Blood, Coronation Street, Shameless, Heartbeat and Clocking Off, but this is his first play.

The Royal Exchange’s artistic director, Greg Hersov, a competition judge, said: "We will be working dramaturgically with all four writers for a year and we are very excited to have the chance to develop work with writers in the early stages of their careers."

Fellow judge Michael Oglesby, chair of Bruntwood, added: "We launched this competition with the aim of discovering and encouraging new writing talent and we’ve been overwhelmed by the quality of the work submitted.

"It’s really exciting that the winning scripts have the potential to be produced and staged at the Royal Exchange and that the competition is unlocking so much writing talent."