2012 Nick Darke Award

Published: 21 October 2012
Reporter: Sandra Giorgetti

Professor Geoff Smith (Deputy Rector, University College Falmouth), Kieran Lynn, Jane Darke Credit: Josh Cunliffe / Cartel Photos

Kieran Lynn has won the 2012 Nick Darke Award.

Playwright Lynn, who originally trained as an actor, recently saw his play An Incident at the Border transfer from the Finborough Theatre to the Trafalgar Studios and now sees his Peter Brook Empty Space Award–winning Bunnies transfer to the New Diorama Theatre in London in advance of a UK tour.

Named after theatre, screen and radio writer Nick Darke who died aged 56, the Award was conceived by his artist and film maker wife, Jane, with the intention that it contribute financially to the life of a writer in one of the same fields.

The award of £7,000 was augmented this year by a gift from an anonymous donor of £1,000.

A grateful Lynn commented: In my few years as a young writer I have found that it is very easy to get your plays read and reported on... to get involved in development workshops and rehearsed readings.

"What it is not easy to do, and what may be the most crucial part of being a professional writer, is getting paid.

He now plans that the Award will fund the completion of the play to be performed at University College Falmouth’s annual Summer Festival.

The stage play for which Lynn wins the Nick Darke Award, Wild Fish, concerns the fallout of commercial fishing company owner Jakob Halvard's decision to stop catching for the benefit of fish stock levels, and is described by judges as “fascinating, sophisticated, witty and formally elegant”.

The other shortlisted writers are David Bottomley for stage play Waterton’s Wild Menagerie, Tony Clare for screenplay Pins and Needles, Sarah Hehir for radio play Bang Up, Fiona Mackie for radio play Stuff, Andrea Montgomery for stage play All At Once I Saw A Crowd, Francis Turnly for screenplay Fell, and Polly Wiseman, for stage play The Power.

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