The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting has announced the 100 plays that have made it on to the longlist for the 2025 Awards.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting is a platform for discovering exceptional talent, in collaboration with the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.

The Shortlist will be announced the week beginning Monday 23 June 2025. Winners will be announced on 21 July 2025 at the Royal Exchange Theatre.

The winner of the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting will receive £20,000.

In addition, each of the following receives £10,000: the Judges Award winner, the Bruntwood Prize International Award winner, and the North West Original New Voice Award and Residency winner, who also has access to an additional £10,000 fund dedicated to their professional development at the Royal Exchange Theatre during their 12-month residency.

This year’s judging panel is chaired by journalist and broadcaster Naga Munchetty, and the judges are: award winning theatre-maker, director and producer and newly appointed Creative Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre, Selina Cartmell; previous Bruntwood Prize winner, Phoebe Eclair-Powell; award-winning playwright and director, Conor McPherson (The Brightening Air; The Hunger Games on Stage); international award-winning director and Artistic Director of London’s Kiln Theatre Amit Sharma; actors, Shobna Gulati and Cherylee Houston, and Munya Chawawa, a BAFTA-nominated broadcaster, writer and comedian, and 2022 British Comedy Awards Breakthrough Talent winner.

Selina Cartmell, Artistic Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre and 2025 Judge, said in a statement: “It’s an extraordinary privilege to celebrate the remarkable achievement of our 100 longlisted writers as part of the 20th anniversary of the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting. These playwrights have shared their imaginations, vulnerabilities, and artistic visions with us, and that act of creative courage deserves our deepest admiration. Each script represents not just a story, but a unique voice and perspective that enriches who we are today. The diversity of themes, styles, and innovations our readers have encountered speaks to the vibrant health of new writing across the UK and internationally. The Bruntwood Prize continues to be a vital platform for discovering exceptional talent, and the Royal Exchange is honoured to be part of this journey. I look forward to reading the shortlist of plays and to be part of this unique journey of theatrical discovery.”

The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2025 Longlist

Pseudonym: Title

Maxi Martin: 4x4xLouder
Herman Melville: a carriage accident
Mr Smith: A Peccable Practice
Just Wrighting Plays: ALL MY FRIENDS ARE DEAD
Tide: Atatürk’s Daughter
Mair Chatten: beats per minute
Ribbit Ribbit: Big Frog
Cole Orchid: Blood in a Milk Bottle
Wheeze: calcite.
Boy in the Yellow Hat: Chasing Dragons
Princess Anonymous: Cocaine Bust
Eva: Conjure
isoretro: CONTENT
Cricket: Coziness
Rumours by Fleetwood Mac: Creation Myth
Ariane: Dark Stars in Perfect Skies
Julian Anderson: DINGUS
CreeSummerFan7: DJS are Griots too
Noel is a Coward: DOG DOG DOG
Night Driver: Dream Body
Jordan Strelitzia: Drunk Hamsters Sharing Confessions in a Locked Cage
Beady Cookie: Exceptional
Pearl: Exposure
Grace Poulter: Eyam
Daisy Desnos: Fame and Condiments
Mye Celium: Foxfire
Millicent Pak: Franchise Me
Derry Saunders: Hindrelag
Mary Mohammadi: HOME
LJ Larson: How to Kill Your Darlings
Ida Mallard: how to prepare a duck dot mov
Meg Strong: Island Chains
JONAS SOREL: Knowledge
Aunt May: Lambs
Sue Denim: Last Night on Earth
LovellLovell: lemon jelly
Jeanell Dedaux: Let It Use You
Gus Nolan: Man to Man.
Ariadne: Medusa
Charlie Dixon: Midnight Ink
Angel Phounebiel: Miracle
MTL: Moose.
On Belay: MOTHER TONGUE
Niylah Mills: Nebulae
joan: Northern Folk
JaffaDaffadil: ORDINARY SEX
b cullingford: ORPHEUS
Aaron Blampied: Parallel Play
Woodi: Pennies
Petitioner Number 3041: Proof
Imalda Grant: Przewalksi’s Horses
Derren Brown: R Lady’s
Pip Squeak: Real Person
true stories: Reap
G. Whizz: SABRINA
Clown Palace: Safe Space
Martin Bale: self / disruption
HackneyOctopus: SHOOTERS
Kodis Abarra: Shrine
Matthew Kumari: Sin. Shame. Salvation.
Do-Won Peterson: Somebody is Looking Back At Me
CJ Hearth: Souffler
Becciness: Soup for Mother
AkinsEagle: SPREAD
Rose: Stuff
Mo Problems: The Annunciation
Alan Wake: the attack of the 50ft black woman
Porkinator24: The Beast Without
Blackcurrant Capri Sun: THE CLUB
SweetLykChocl8: The Damnation of Divine
Beets: The Day Aarón Came to Town and Some Stuff That Happened Next
Noc Donk: The Dry
Very Merry Mary: the grenoble sisters
Max Bellaret: The Kompormats
boids: The Line
All Hallows Evensong: The Lords of Creation
Ava Swallow: The Lovely Girls of Lakewell
Thomas Butters: The Midnight Layer
amberg: The Pass
Alice: The Plan
Inigo Edwards: The Silver
Maura McGovern: The Sociology of Deviance
bobbin: The Stone Woman
Qwerty Uiop: The Tide
Frank Carpet: The Urmetazoan
Juliet Buckley: The Veiled Pedestal
Juno Maguire: Three Boys
Teddy Thomas: Three Jacks
Tasha Harrison: Title withheld due to anonymity
Carmen Delia Nieves: Title withheld due to anonymity
sunshinelibrary: UJAMAA
Flatbush Flaneur: Under the Sovereign Pleasures of God
Polly Thacker: Untitled Play About Boys
wow platinum: Voyagers
Jo Pot: Walking Barefoot
John Prawn: Welcome to Pemfort
whetu: We’re Gonna Kill Richard
IMT: What I Think of my Husband
V Rotaru: while we burn
jo iorio: Work of Devotion

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Main photo: The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2025

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