The Bread & Roses Theatre this week announced that The Black Eye Club by Phil Charles has taken the prize for their 2016/2017 Playwriting Award.
The story of this black comedy concerns the friendship between a gay man fleeing an abusive partner hidden by a resident in a women-only refuge.
The Black Eye Club will receive its première at South London's Bread & Roses Theatre opening in November; the venue's artistic director, Tessa Hart, will direct.
The criteria for the award are that the work is a full-length play from UK-based playwrights and at least 50% of the material is for female, non-binary or gender neutral roles. 450 submissions were received and judged anonymously over three rounds.
Little Did I Know by Doc Andersen-Bloomfield and The Buzz by Lydia Rynne are the runners-up which will receive showcase productions.