Greenwich Theatre launches award for female playwrights

The RED Women’s Theatre Award is the idea of writer Effie Samara and will launch on Sunday, March 6, with rehearsed readings of four one-act plays presenting four challenging political voices.

Submissions opened last November and closed mid-January.

Effie said: “We have had some shockingly good work. Some are from very young women and two or three are from quite well-known names.

“I’m looking for an evolutionary aesthetic in female authored drama and we’re well on our way. In a year or two I’m sure we’re going to get a masterpiece – maybe it’s even one of these plays set to be showcased in Greenwich.”

The four plays receiving a reading are Gone by Kate Webster, Under My Thumb by Cassiah Joski-Jethi, Dissonance by Paper Cage Theatre and Spurn the Dust by Sian Rowland.

Effie said she had the idea of the award in her head for between 10 and 15 years but now the time felt right.

She said: “We live in a time of war and exile and it needs to be talked about, not just as it has been through history by men but by women too.

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 “Most of the work is about being progressive. I’ve yet to see a text in the scores we have received that’s looking to preserve the status quo. After lots of provocation women are becoming more and more fearless and are becoming what they want to be.”

The award evening is part of the theatre’s season celebrating some of the nation’s finest female theatre makers.

 Artistic and Executive director James Haddrell said: “Women are not only outnumbered by men by two to one among British playwrights, they are not often writing this kind of work, not because of a lack of desire but because of such a low expectation of having their work produced.”

The RED Women’s Theatre Awards are at Greenwich Theatre from 6.30pm on Sunday, March 6. Tickets cost £7. Go to greenwichtheatre.org.uk or call 020 8858 7755.

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