Victoria and I enjoyed a fantastic evening at the Royal Exchange Theatre this week for the annual Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting. Brief scenes from each contender were performed, and I can personally say that I would happily pay to see each of the ten plays performed in full. The Bruntwood Prize has gained such wide recognition since its inception in 2005 that we can be hopeful of seeing each of the plays make it to the stage somewhere.

The winning play – Heartworm, by Tim X Atack – was so intriguing that I’m not sure I can rest easy until I find out what happens – hopefully we won’t have to wait too long! For me, mentions must also go Electric Rosary by Tim Foley (nuns and robots), A Bit of Light by Rebecca Callard (something bad has happened) and This is Not America by Joshua Val Martin (a new life on Mars) – the latter had me welling up after only a short excerpt! An evening of excellent and excitingly fresh playwriting, and some wonderful acting to portray the characters of ten different worlds in only a couple of hours. And I met Russell T Davies!

You can watch the ceremony (including all the snippets from the shortlisted plays) here.