The Women’s Prize for Playwriting has announced its shortlist for the 2023 prize, selected from a shortlist of 50, and 1,002 overall entries.

Submissions were opened in January for this year’s Prize, for full-length plays of over 60 minutes in length and written in English. The winner takes home a £12,000 prize, with an option for Ellie Keel Productions and Paines Plough to co-produce the winning play.

Now in its third year, the Prize was launched by Ellie Keel and Paines Plough in 2019, and is designed to celebrate and support exceptional playwrights who identify as female or non-binary.

The Prize is sponsored by Samuel French Ltd, a Concord Theatricals company, production company Fiery Angel, and recruitment agency PER.

The judges for this year’s Prize, chaired by Artistic Director of Kiln Theatre Indhu Rubasingham, are journalist Samira Ahmed, playwrights April de Angelis and Chris Bush, actor Noma Dumezweni, literary agent Mel Kenyon, journalist and critic Anya Ryan, Head of Play Development at the National Theatre, Nina Steiger, and Guardian Editor-in-Chief Katharine Viner.

Ellie Keel, Founder Director of The Women’s Prize for Playwriting, said in a statement: “After 1002 submissions and an incredibly strong Longlist and Shortlist, it feels slightly surreal to have reached this final stage! The depth and breadth of all five plays is incredibly impressive, and I cannot wait to hear the judges’ thoughts on them in January. At WPP we feel incredibly lucky to be working with writers at the very top of their game in terms of craft and concept. Choosing one winner will be very hard, but I hope and believe that all five plays will have a future life. Theatres, directors, producers – please read these plays and meet the writers, who are all brilliant.”

Katie Posner and Debo Adebayo, Joint Artistic Director and Deputy Artistic Director of Paines Plough, said: “Reading for the Prize this year has been a truly enriching experience and a privilege. Over 1000 writers shared their work, writers of unquestionable talent who we will continue to champion outside of the parameters of the Prize. Getting to the final five was never going to be an easy task, especially from a shortlist of plays that were superb, ambitious and thrilling. We could not be prouder to submit these five plays to our esteemed panel of judges who now have the task of selecting a winner. They are of astounding quality, from edge of the seat thrillers, to highly provocative, visual and magically real dramas. A huge congratulations to all the finalists. To us, they are all winning plays that we know would bring joy to audiences and fill theatres. Lastly, another thank you to the shortlisted writers and all the writers who submitted this year, and to the incredible team of readers we have worked with, we are emphatically grateful to you all for sharing your work with us.”

The winner or winners will be announced at a ceremony at the London Library on Friday 19 January 2024.

Also, view the longlist for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2023.

The Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2023 – Shortlist

  • Bellringers by Daisy Hall
  • LUMIN by Emma Gibson
  • Intelligence by Sarah Grochala
  • The Angels Were Worms by Shaan Sahota
  • King Troll (The Fawn) by Sonali Bhattacharyya
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Main photo: The Women's Prize for Playwriting

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