The winner has been announced of the annual Verity Bargate Award new writing competition, organised by Soho Theatre.
Now in its 42nd year, the winner was announced on Thursday 7 November 2024.
The winner is Eoin McAndrew, for his new play Little Brother.
In Little Brother, Brigid gets a phone call from her brother, Niall, in the middle of the night. They talk about nothing in particular and agree to meet on Saturday to catch-up properly. Brigid goes back to sleep, and Niall sets his own hand on fire. When Niall gets out of hospital, he moves in with Brigid, and over the next two years in Belfast, we follow their lives and Niall’s recovery. Brigid promises herself that this will not happen again.
Eoin McAndrew will receive £8,000 for an exclusive option for Soho Theatre to produce the prize-winning play, and a full London run of the play staged at Soho Theatre.
Also, for the first time Soho Theatre has partnered with leading new-writing venues in India and USA to hold workshops and readings of the prize-winning play.
Prize winner Eoin McAndrew said in a statement: “Competitions like Verity Bargate Award are good as they give you a deadline and structure and routes into the industry that people recognise and want to see. I like the work Soho Theatre does and I felt like [Little Brother] might be a play that finds an audience there”.
The runner up was Martina Laird, for her play Driftwood.
Martina Laird said: “Soho Theatre is right in the exciting part of London, it is an exciting theatre, the Verity Bargate Award stands for so much excellence, and the panel is phenomenal. The idea that those people read my play that I’ve been hiding away from the world [for almost 20 years] is astonishing. There’s no wilder, happier feeling.”
The judging panel for this year’s awards included actor, writer and Artistic Director of Pitlochry Festival Alan Cumming, director Anthony Lau (The Crucible, Miss Saigon), playwright Anupama Chandrasekhar (The Father and the Assassin), playwright (Handbagged), musician and actor Rebecca Lucy Taylor AKA Self Esteem (Cabaret), and writer and director Ryan Calais Cameron (For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy). The panel is chaired by Stephen Garrett, who runs production company Character 7 (The Night Manager), who also sponsor the award.
Over 1700 plays were submitted to this year’s awards, with 20 long-listed plays selected, and five writers short-listed: Eleanor Tindall, Eoin McAndrew, Martha Watson Allpress, Martina Laird, and Samantha Miles. Read more about the short-listed plays.
Eleanor Tindall’s new play Tender is coming to London next month, playing the Bush Theatre from 19 November to 21 December 2024; and Martina Laird is currently starring in David Edgar’s new play The New Real at the RSC.
The awards showcase the originality and audacity of emerging playwrights from across the UK and Ireland.
What They Said
Verity Bargate Award judges on the winning play
Chair Stephen Garrett from Character 7 said: ‘In the few years that we have been sponsoring the Verity Bargate Award, the bar for great and inspiring writing from emerging voices just gets higher and higher. This year’s shortlist was of an extraordinarily high-quality and in truth any of the five plays would have been deserving winners. Little Brother is very beautiful, true, immensely moving, oh-so personal, and somehow universal, too. I can’t wait to see the play on the stage’
Alan Cumming: ‘Little Brother deals with huge subjects like addiction and self-harming and visceral familial connections and hovering above it all like a menacing historical umbrella is Northern Ireland. Like its location, this play knows troubles but manages to remind us that love will win.’
Anupama Chandrasekhar: ‘Little Brother is a masterfully crafted, heart-wrenching play on depression written with extraordinary tenderness, restraint and courage. This rare gem of a play made me smile and cry and perhaps see the world a tad differently.’
Anthony Lau: ‘Little Brother is an extraordinary play full of humour and pathos, I found the characters and their journey hugely moving. Eoin has written a beautifully crafted play that manages to be both small and delicate, and also mammoth in theme and feeling. The dance between words said and unsaid by characters stayed with me long after I finished reading, as did the weight of what they had gone through. Eoin has a clear and distinct voice, writing about all of us in the small family unit they present onstage. A terrific winner.’
Max Elton, Associate Director (Literary) at Soho Theatre said:  ‘Over the last four months, alongside a fantastic team of dedicated readers, Soho Theatre has had the pleasure of considering scripts from some of the UK and Ireland’s most promising emerging playwrights. Eoin McAndrew’s Little Brother truly stood out as a remarkable play that renders the universal in the particular, tackling big knotty themes with insight and humour. McAndrew is an exciting new voice in British theatre and a thoroughly deserving winner of this year’s award.’
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