Women's Prize for Playwriting announces this year's finalists

Returning after their inaugural year, the Women's Prize for Playwriting has announced its finalists for 2021.

Produced by Ellie Keel and Paines Plough, with principal partner 45North and in association with Sonia Friedman Productions, the prize's judging panel is composed of Arifa Akbar, Mel Kenyon (Chair), Lucy Kirkwood, Jasmine Lee-Jones, Winsome Pinnock, Indhu Rubasingham, Jenny Sealey, Nina Steiger, Nicola Walker and Jodie Whittaker.

Keel said today: "I couldn't be more proud of this list and the writers on it. The Women's Prize for Playwriting is above all an adventure, and these plays embody that spirit of adventure, challenge, and artistry in a glorious and exciting way. Here we are, hopefully coming to the end of the pandemic and easing into a period of recovery, and I know that all of these plays are worthy of enriching this new phase and being amazing pieces of theatre for audiences in the UK and Ireland."

The finalist plays are:

MOUNTAIN WARFARE by Abi Zakarian
Birdie by Alison Carr
A Bouffon Play About Hong Kong by Isabella Leung
FURIES by Isley Lynn
Consumed by Karis Kelly
upright enuf by lydia luke
4 Decades by Paula B Stanic
HOW I LEARNED TO SWIM by Somebody Jones

The final results will be announced in March.

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