Walthamstow playwright Benjamin Kuffuor has been awarded the 2024 George Devine Award for his state of the nation play WORKING MEN. With wit and stealth, the play charts the systemic corruption and tragic failings within the building industry. The prize of £15,000 will support him to write his next play.
The story of WORKING MEN centres on an old council estate where a team of men have been deployed to price up works to improve the standard of living for tenants. When a fatal incident occurs on that estate a few months later, those same men are forced to retrace their steps, as the senior management team, local counsellors/MPs and the wider public are in search of someone to blame.
Temi Majekodunmi was also recognised with a special mention for his play POSITIVE, a love story of two gay friends, one of which is navigating HIV.
The 2024 jury consisted of award-winning professionals from across the theatre industry including writer and director Jon Brittain, writer, actor and director Mark Gatiss, writers Abi Morgan and Vinay Patel and former George Devine Award recipients Diana Nneka Atuona and Theresa Ikoko.
Writer, actor and director Mark Gatiss said: ‘Despite a very strong field, Benjamin Kuffuor’s WORKING MEN was a clear winner. A tight, bold, tough new play with memorable characters and a lot to say. Both a fascinating character study and a state of the nation piece, it’s thrilling to think that such work is getting the recognition it so richly deserves.’
Writer Abi Morgan said: ‘Benjamin Kuffuor’s compelling play plots with wit, stealth and brutal relevance the casual corruptions and tragic failings within the building industry from contractor to local council surveyor that leads to the very worst of crimes. Beautifully observed, the quiet dynamism of this five hander gripped the jury by the throat and pulled us in. A fitting winner, it is ripe to leap from the page onto the stage.’
Writer Theresa Ikoko, who won the Award in 2016 for her play GIRLS, said: ‘For me this was a play about people and place-about who gets to, and how we get to, take up space. The internal (and outward) conflicts of everyday people, with unexpected stories, making extraordinary choices, in otherwise mundane settings, moved me greatly. The characters, breathed to life by Benjamin’s easy, well-timed, flowy, almost musical dialogue, lingered long after the last line.’
Commenting on receiving the Award, Benjamin Kuffuor said: ‘As someone who grew up in, and later worked in social housing, it is really special to be honoured for this piece of writing. Thank you to the George Devine Award for choosing such a knotty, difficult and confrontational piece of work. In a time of heavy political, social and economic unrest, I hope that I’ve contributed something that speaks to the emotional truth of where we are.
Thanks to Mum for giving me a place to sleep when I ran out of money and to the housing sector for giving me a place to work when I couldn’t get arrested as a writer. I guess some of it had to be as hard as that to feel as lovely as this.’
The 2024 Shortlist was:
Christopher Adams for PROGRESSION
Stella Green for THE BOOK OF ALICE
Benjamin Kuffuor for WORKING MEN
Temi Majekodunmi for POSITIVE
Isabella Waldron for CHATTER
