Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting (1983-)
Subcategory of New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards
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History

Also known as the Play Award: the award was later re-named for inaugural winner Nick Enright.

Notes

  • Awarded to a play or a work of music drama first performed by a professional theatre company during the eligible period. (For a drama, the prize money is paid to the playwright. In the case of music drama, the money may be shared between the playwright and the composer.)

Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 2024

winner y separately published work icon Sex Magick Nicholas Brown , 2023 Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2023 25144138 2023 single work drama

'After a workplace indiscretion shatters his elite physiotherapy career, Ard Panicker ends up working at a metaphysical health spa giving Ayurvedic rubdowns to yummy mummies in Bondi.

'When he receives word that his estranged father has died, Ard’s world is thrown into turmoil. He begins to shake and shudder with mysterious full-body seizures—accompanied with waking visions of a terrifying, all-powerful deity. 

'Desperate to find a cure for his phantasmagorical condition, Ard travels to the village in South India where his father was born. 

'Instead, he finds an enlightened tantric guru who cracks open his sense of identity, sexuality and his grip on reality.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Year: 2023

winner y separately published work icon Whitefella Yella Tree Dylan Van Den Berg , 2022 Redfern : Currency Press , 2022 23507212 2022 single work drama

'Once in a blue moon, in the middle of nowhere, two teenage boys meet under a lemon tree. After a rough start, a fragile friendship fruits into a heady romance. Ty and Neddy fall madly in love, as teenagers are wont to do.

'If history would just unfurl a little differently, the boys might have a beautiful future ahead of them. But without knowing it, Ty and Neddy are poised on the brink of a world that is about to change forever. It’s the early 19th century. Ty is River Mob. Neddy is Mountain Mob. And the earth they stand together on is about to be declared ‘Australia’.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Year: 2022

winner y separately published work icon Orange Thrower Kirsty Marillier , 2021 Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2022 20801035 2021 single work drama

'It’s one of those suburbs where the houses all match, the gardens all match, the cars, the dogs, and the people all match. But in the stucco sprawl of Paradise, the Petersen family don’t quite match.

'While her folks are back in Johannesburg, Zadie is holding the family fort. This means keeping her little sis away from bush doofs—and smiling when her nice white neighbours try to touch her hair.

'Then, in the middle of the night, someone starts pelting their house with oranges. Just once. Then twice. Then night after night after night. Maybe it’s nothing. Or maybe someone in Paradise wants them out.'

Source: Griffin Theatre Company.

Year: 2021

winner y separately published work icon Milk Dylan Van Den Berg , 2020 Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2021 21417867 2020 single work drama

'Like a smack in the face.  That’s how I’d describe it.

'On the precipice of something life changing, a young Palawa man plunges into an exploration of self and Country. 

'Carried with the winds of a metaphysical Flinders Island, the land of his mob and the place where it all happened, he is drawn back to the dawn of colonization. To a woman who bore the brunt of the oppressors’ violence and then forward to her granddaughter, who buried the truth as a means of survival. Stirring up stories together, with parts both  achingly sad and unexpectedly funny, what unfolds reveals by slow degrees painful but important truths.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Year: 2020

winner y separately published work icon Counting and Cracking S. Shakthidharan , 2019 Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2020 14530930 2019 single work drama

'On the banks of the Georges River, Radha and her son Siddhartha release the ashes of Radha’s mother – their final connection to the past, to Sri Lanka and its struggles. Now they are free to embrace their lives in Australia. Then a phone call from Colombo brings the past spinning back to life, and we are plunged into an epic story of love and political strife, of home and exile, of parents and children

'Counting and Cracking is a big new play about Australia like none we’ve seen before. This is life on a large canvas, so we are leaving Belvoir St and building a Sri Lankan town hall inside Sydney Town Hall. Sixteen actors play four generations of a family, from Colombo to Pendle Hill, in a story about Australia as a land of refuge, about Sri Lanka’s efforts to remain united, about reconciliation within families, across countries, across generations.'

Source: Belvoir St Theatre.

Works About this Award

Performance Anxiety Alison Croggon , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , June vol. 5 no. 5 2010; (p. 10-11, 14)
Croggon examines the state of Australian writing for the stage in light of the decision not to award the NSW Premier's Literary Award in this category in 2010.
Sci-Fi Satire Wins Drama Prize Garry Maddox , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 24 May 2010; (p. 18) The Sydney Morning Herald , 24 May 2010; (p. 5)
Playwrights Snubbed by Award Judges Bryce Hallett , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 17 May 2010; (p. 6)
Bryce Hallett reports on the controversy surrounding the decision to not award a Play Award in the 2010 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.
Losing the Battle Victoria Chance , 2010 single work correspondence
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 321 2010; (p. 5)
Victoria Chance, publisher with Currency Press, raises some questions about the decision of the judges to not award a Play Award in the 2010 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.
Playlist for Judges in Search of a Premier Shortlist Marc McEvoy , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 13 April 2010; (p. 9)
Playwright David Williamson and artistic director Nick Marchand comment on the decision of the New South Wales Premier's Literary Award judges to not award a Play Award for 2010. It was the view of the judges that none of the 25 plays submitted warranted shortlisting.
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