The winner of this year’s 55th annual George Devine Award, celebrating new playwriting, has been announced.

The winner is London-based playwright Benjamin Kuffuor, for his state of the nation play Working Men.

Benjamin receives a £15,000 prize.

Working Men is a play about money and social housing. On an old council estate, a team of men have been deployed to price up works to improve the standard of living for tenants. When a fatal incident occurs on that estate a few months later, those same men are forced to retrace their steps, as the senior management team, local councillors/MPs and the wider public are in search of someone to blame.

Benjamin Kuffuor’s work is for stage and screen. He has worked on attachment at the National Theatre, under commission at the Bush and was shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award in 2022. For screen, he has developed original projects and contributed in writers’ rooms for Netflix, BBC, Channel 4 and Amazon. His debut short film as writer/director screened in multiple festivals internationally, as well as BIFA-qualifying festivals in the UK.

Temi Majekodunmi was also recognised at this year’s awards with a special mention for his play Positive, a love story of two gay friends, one of which is navigating HIV.

The other shortlisted writers were Christopher Adams for Progression; Stella Green for The Book of Alice; and Isabella Waldron for Chatter.

This year’s 2024 judging panel included writer and director Jon Brittain; writer, actor and director Mark Gatiss; writers Abi Morgan and Vinay Patel; and former George Devine Award recipients Diana Nneka Atuona and Theresa Ikoko.

Winner Benjamin Kuffuor said: “As someone who grew up in, and later worked in social housing, it is really special to be honoured for this piece of writing. Thank you to the George Devine Award for choosing such a knotty, difficult and confrontational piece of work. In a time of heavy political, social and economic unrest, I hope that I’ve contributed something that speaks to the emotional truth of where we are. Thanks to Mum for giving me a place to sleep when I ran out of money and to the housing sector for giving me a place to work when I couldn’t get arrested as a writer. I guess some of it had to be as hard as that to feel as lovely as this.”

Writer Abi Morgan said: “Benjamin Kuffuor’s compelling play plots with wit, stealth and brutal relevance the casual corruptions and tragic failings within the building industry from contractor to local council surveyor that leads to the very worst of crimes. Beautifully observed, the quiet dynamism of this five hander gripped the jury by the throat and pulled us in. A fitting winner, it is ripe to leap from the page onto the stage.”

Writer Theresa Ikoko, who won the Award in 2016 for her play GIRLS, said: “For me this was a play about people and place-about who gets to, and how we get to, take up space. The internal (and outward) conflicts of everyday people, with unexpected stories, making extraordinary choices, in otherwise mundane settings, moved me greatly. The characters, breathed to life by Benjamin’s easy, well-timed, flowy, almost musical dialogue, lingered long after the last line.”

Started in 1966 in memory of the Royal Court’s founding Artistic Director George Devine, the Award is recognised as one of the most prestigious in new writing.

Last year’s winner was Tife Kusoro who won the 54th Award for her debut full length play G, which was staged at the Royal Court in the autumn directed by Monique Touko.

Other former winners include Tyrell Williams, Alice Birch, Nick Payne and Lucy Prebble.

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Main photo: Benjamin Kuffuor - George Devine Award winner 2024

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