Sapling by Georgina Duncan has been named the winner of The Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2025, produced by Ellie Keel Productions and Paines Plough. The prize is the only national award dedicated to supporting exceptional playwrights who identify as female or non-binary.
The announcement was made at an awards ceremony on 9 February 2026 at @sohoplace, attended by invited guests and industry leaders. This year’s prize saw a record 1,275 submissions, judged by a panel chaired by Indhu Rubasingham alongside Milli Bhatia, Alice Hamilton, Romola Garai, Mel Kenyon, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, Nancy Medina, Kat Pierce, Nina Steiger and Katharine Viner.
The ceremony also recognised Kristin Scott Thomas, who received the inaugural Leading Light award, celebrating her outstanding contribution to the arts. A special monologue, written by Abi Morgan with contributions from longlisted writers and performed by Dame Meera Syal, paid tribute to the impact of women shaping British theatre.
Ellie Keel, Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting, said, “Sapling is the rare kind of play that producers dream of discovering and audiences yearn to watch: gripping, fearless, and profoundly moving. Georgie’s writing is full of heart and vivid energy, matching its extraordinary craft in every scene. The judges’ meeting was particularly rigorous this year, reflecting the impressive standard of all our Final Five plays, which were selected from our highest number of submissions yet. These plays and writers have incredible futures on big stages and I can’t wait to follow their journeys. It’s a privilege to be at the helm of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting as we continue to grow and reach more writers, and champion the wealth of female and non-binary talent we all know is out there, but is sometimes overlooked or compromised by old-guard gatekeepers. The future for big plays by women is getting brighter all the time, but we need to keep our foot on the pedal.”
Katie Posner and Charlotte Bennett, Joint Artistic Directors of Paines Plough, and Debo Adebayo, Deputy Artistic Director, added, “We are prouder each year of the growing impact of this prize and the very real difference it makes to female and non-binary writers. This was the most competitive year yet, with the highest number of submissions so far, and an incredibly difficult decision for the judges to choose just one from the incredible Final Five. A huge congratulations to all five finalists, whose work was such a privilege to read. Georgina’s winning script is a deeply assured piece of storytelling: a tender, powerful portrait of a family and community living in the long shadow of grief, written with confidence, skill, care and love. Since the prize began, we’ve produced three winning plays bringing them to over 35,000 audience members in 31 locations nationwide and we’re so excited to see Sapling grow and connect with audiences on that same scale.”
Elizabeth Newman, Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres, said, “Sheffield Theatres is so proud to be the new venue partner of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting, we are so immensely proud to be working alongside Ellie and WPP Team and Katie and Charlotte at Paines Plough. We are already deeply involved in planning a future production of Georgina Duncan’s Sapling. As a national organisation, this powerful partnership represents our deep commitment to champion bold new writing across the country and ensuring that exceptional work by women is not only celebrated, but brought to life on stage.”
Founded in 2019, the prize champions female and non-binary playwrights and advocates for their work to appear on national stages in the UK and Ireland. It is open to English-language plays over 60 minutes and awards the winner £20,000 as well as the option for Ellie Keel Productions, Paines Plough and Sheffield Theatres to co-produce the play.
Previous winners include Amy Trigg for Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me, Ahlam for You Bury Me, and Karis Kelly for Consumed, which recently completed a successful UK tour and sell-out Fringe run. Last year’s winner, Sarah Grochala, is currently developing her play Intelligence.
Sapling follows the aftermath of a child’s murder in a community marked by violence. Set a decade later during the final years of The Troubles in Belfast, it centres on 16 year old Gerry Flynn as he navigates grief, adolescence and the arrival of a stranger who may hold answers or new dangers. The play is described as a tender and darkly funny story about what grows when long-held pain goes unaddressed.
Georgina Duncan is a working class writer and actor from East Lancashire, now based in London. Her work has been shortlisted and longlisted for numerous competitions, and she was commissioned in 2024 to write Penalty for Improper Use for LAMDA’s MishMash Festival. She also debuted her one-woman show ASBO BOZO at Riverside Studios.
More information can be found here.
