A “social-magical-realist comedy” has earned Northern writer Matthew Gabrielli the Lancaster Playwriting Prize.
Matthew was selected from 32 entries to win the award and will now have a rehearsed reading of Fool’s Gold on April 21 at The Dukes as part of Blast Fest, and will also receive £1,500 plus professional mentoring.
The competition, now in its fourth year, is run in partnership by the Department of English Literature and Creative Writing at Lancaster University and The Dukes Theatre in Lancaster.
The 2023 award, which aims to support and showcase emerging writers in the North, was this year open to any writer identifying as d/Deaf, disabled or neurodiverse. Each playwright entered anonymously.
The six shortlisted plays were:
- Fox Drops Panda Pops by Sarah Teale
- In Bits by Danny Start
- In memory of Superman’s parents by Helen East
- Fool’s Gold by Matthew Gabrielli
- Dot.Com by Chris Singleton
- Rogue Comet(s) by Daneka Etchells