Samuel Bailey's début play Shook, which won the Papatango New Writing Prize in 2019 and went on to pick up seven OffWestEnd Awards nominations and win Bailey The Stage Debut Award for Most Promising Playwright, has been filmed and will available online from 5 February.
Inspired by young men's true stories, Bailey's play looks at the lives of three young offenders facing fatherhood whilst incarcerated.
Following its hugely successful première and tour, the transfer of Shook to London's West End was cancelled by the pandemic. George Turvey, Papatango artistic director, said, “having suffered the loss of the West End transfer, we are delighted to have found a way to share Sam’s fantastic play with a wider audience. We are hugely grateful to James, the cast, and the whole creative team for pulling together under difficult circumstances to make it possible. We hope that audiences around the world enjoy watching it as much as we did making it.”
The film version, directed Turvey in collaboration with BAFTA-winning and multi-Emmy-nominated director James Bobin, features the original cast of Josef Davies, Josh Finan, Andrea Hall and Ivan Oyik.
Whilst the 2020 Papatango New Writing Prize-winning Old Bridge by Igor Memic awaits its world première at London's Bush Theatre, the 2021 Papatango New Writing Prize has been reimagined and is being run with English Touring Theatre to offer three opportunities to emerging playwrights.
The current Prize invites submissions of 25- to 50-minute scripts for audio performance, with the three winning pieces touring twelve venues for playing at free, sanitised, distanced and safe listening stations. Copies of the scripts will be available in braille.
The company also launched its Education Portal providing online, captioned courses in playwriting and producing and continues to offer free creative learning through GoWrite.
The 2021 Papatango New Writing Prize will accept entries until midnight on 7 February.
Shook is available from 5 to 28 February. A live Q&A with the cast and creatives will take place at 7:30PM on 5 February.