Victoria Wood comedy prize shortlist revealed

The artistic director of the Birmingham Rep said the award would be "a fitting tribute to Victoria Wood’s trailblazing comic talent"

The shortlist has been announced for the first ever major playwriting prize dedicated to the art of comedy.

The Birmingham Rep theatre has created The Victoria Wood Playwriting Prize for Comedy in partnership with The Victoria Wood Foundation and supported by BBC Comedy.

Sean Foley, artistic director of the Rep, has announced the shortlist of eight new plays.

The winner will receive £25,000, £10,000 of which will be a commission for their play to be staged, and a special award designed and currently being made in the theatre's own workshops.

The eight plays shortlisted are:

• Bring me the Head of Miriam Margolyes by Andrew Pollard

• Hello Charlie by Caoimhe Farren

• Bum by Ed Amsden and Tom Coles

• Goodbye Suzzie Jenkins by Ben Callon

• Reach for the Stars by Jenny Knotts

• Portugal by Eugene O'Hare

• Sidekicked by Patrick Maguire

• Fake Melania by Poppy Corbett

The names of the four finalists will be released on Monday 13 May and the winner will be announced at a special ceremony held at The Rep two days later.

'City of major collaborators'

The prize has been made possible thanks to the support of The Victoria Wood Foundation, a charity set up by her friends to support the arts after the acclaimed comedian, singer and writer died in 2016.

Mr Foley said: "[it is] a fitting tribute to Victoria Wood’s trailblazing comic talent, this is the first major playwriting prize for narrative stage comedy in the world.

"The Rep is proud that the home of the prize is in the UK’s most diverse and youngest city, the city of one of Victoria’s major collaborators, Dame Julie Walters, and the city of so many contemporary comedians and writers such as Sir Lenny Henry, Joe Lycett, and Meera Syal.

"It is, of course, also the city where Victoria Wood herself went to university to study drama."

Mr Foley said the he hoped the groundbreaking prize would see Birmingham Rep become a national home for theatrical comedy.