Theatre News

Alfred Fagon Award winners announced

Talawa Theatre’s Michael Buffong was on hand to present the awards

May Sumbwanyambe, Courttia Newland and Lorna French
May Sumbwanyambe, Courttia Newland and Lorna French
© Ed Miles

Lorna French has won this year's Best New Play at this year's Alfred Fagon Awards, ten years after winning the same award for her play Safe House.

French, who was presented with a cheque for £6,000 by Michael Buffong, won for her play City Melodies, which focuses on the sense of home and the impermanence of life through the experience of first and second generation immigrants in London.

Other winners at the annual awards were May Sumbwayambe who won the Audience Award for his play After Independence, and Courttia Newland who was awarded a £3,000 bursary to enable him to devote more time to his writing.

The Alfred Fagon Awards, which are supported by The Peggy Ramsay Foundation and named in honour of the theatre director who passed away in September, recognise Black British playwrights of Caribbean or African descent resident in the UK.