Laura Waldren wins 2023 Papatango New Writing Prize

The winner of the 15th annual Papatango New Writing Prize has been revealed.

From a total of 1,468 entries, Laura Waldren’s first full-length play, Some Demon prevailed and will be staged at the Arcola Theatre in London next summer. It will also be published by Nick Hern Books.

Set in an eating disorder unit, the piece explores the complex relationship between two patients: a teenager and a 40-something-year-old.

Waldren said: “It’s a huge privilege — and a massive shock! — to have won. I entered the Prize hoping to get some feedback, and never expected in a million years this would happen. Eating disorders are still deeply misunderstood illnesses, and this has been a very difficult, personal but important play to write — I’m so honoured that Papatango have chosen to share it, especially given how hard it is right now for debut writers to get their work read, let alone produced.”

In addition, four shortlisted entrants have also been recognised: Piers Black (for My Dad Hunts Bears), Georgia Green (for Private Adult Things), Yolanda Mercy (for Handsworth Boys), and Hannah Shury-Smith (for Go Back Home!). They will each receive £500 and their plays will be filmed as staged readings to be digitally broadcast via The Playwright’s Laboratory.

Finally, in celebration of the Prize’s 15^th year, an extra commission has been set up. In partnership with Phil Temple at Birdie Pictures, one writer will receive £2,500 to pen a 10-minute short film to be released in 2024. This has been awarded to Josh Barrow for his entry Sweet Heathens.

Papatango’s George Turvey and Chris Foxon added: “We are thrilled and privileged to realise the work of six such brilliant and distinctive writers, in stage, screen and digital forms – as well as to nurture the talent of 1,468 entrants, the quality of whose plays was unquestionably higher than ever. That the Prize has found a way to expand and showcase more new voices, despite being denied Arts Council England project funding after more than a decade of extraordinary subsidised success, is testament to its pivotal role opening pathways into theatre. It is more essential than ever in a context of massive cuts to programming and development.”

Dates for Some Demon at the Arcola Theatre will be announced in due course.

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