Soho Theatre has announced the shortlist and longlist for the Verity Bargate Award 2026 after receiving a record-breaking 2,219 submissions.
Sponsored by Character 7, the Verity Bargate Award is Soho Theatre’s flagship playwriting prize and guarantees the winning playwright a full production of their play at the London venue.
The winner will be revealed at a ceremony at Soho Theatre on 20 October, where the Character 7 Commission will also be announced.
The winning playwright will receive £12,000 in exchange for an exclusive option for Soho Theatre to produce the play, alongside a full London run. The Character 7 Commission will see a selected writer join the 2027 cohort of Soho ReDraft, the theatre’s programme supporting writers in developing scripts towards production-ready scripts.
This year’s shortlisted works range from a contemporary retelling of the Greek myth of Ajax set within a water company to a tale of spiritual awakening on a Texan farm, alongside stories exploring foster care, love across centuries, video game development and two Taliban fighters debating atop an ancient Buddha statue.
The shortlisted plays are:
The Faithfuls by Elham Ehsas
The History by Tife Kusoro
The Last of the Watermelon Kid by Robert Akodoto
Voyagers by Ava Wong Davies
Water After Ajax by Billie Collins
The Wilderness by Philippa Lawford
Sixteen further plays have been named on the longlist:
attack of the 50ft black woman by Asa Haynes
Aunties in the USSR by Rebecca Banatvala
Black Holes by Suleyman Wellings-Longmore
Forest People by Rhianna Adesuwa Ilube
How a Sting Tracks, Post-Show Talk by Jacob Hodgkinson
Mad Youth Organise by Chloe Yates
Misandry by Jonathan Neil
Night Side by Farah Najib
Remember, Remember by Sid Sagar
Ripe by Annie Jenkins
Softboy by Aisling Towl
SPUNK by Héctor Manchego
Things That Might Become by Liz Bacon
Third Culture Kid by Francis Grin
This Play Has Nothing to Do With the 20th Century novel Mephisto, by Klaus Mann (Because That is About Nazis and Therefore Does Not Apply) by Joel Samuels
We’re Gonna Kill Billy by Alex Medland
The judging panel comprises Beth Steel, Bryony Kimmings, Monica Ali, Roy Williams and Rufus Norris, with Character 7 founder Stephen Garrett serving as chair.
First established in 1981, the Verity Bargate Award is one of the UK’s longest-running playwriting prizes and is the only award to guarantee the winning play a fully staged production at Soho Theatre. Previous winners and nominees have included Eoin McAndrew, Sam Grabiner, Nathan Ellis, Amanda Wilkin, Matt Charman, Vicky Jones and Toby Whithouse.
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
