Birmingham Rep is honouring the memory of comedy legend Victoria Wood with the creation of the first-ever major playwriting prize dedicated to the art of comedy in partnership with The Victoria Wood Foundation.
The winner of The Victoria Wood Playwriting Prize For Comedy, announced on what would have been the star’s 70th birthday, will receive £25,000 (£10,000 of which will be the play commission). Submissions will be accepted from September this year with the winner announced next spring.
Launching the new award, the Rep’s double Olivier Award-winning artistic director Sean Foley said: “It’s a personal thrill that the Rep is now able to announce The Victoria Wood Playwriting Prize For Comedy in partnership with the Victoria Wood Foundation. To have a new major playwriting prize in our industry is cause for celebration itself – never has the need for supporting new plays been greater – but to have this prize dedicated to the art of comedy, perhaps the most difficult genre of all, is ground breaking.
“A fitting tribute to Victoria Wood’s trailblazing comic talent, this will be the first major playwriting prize for narrative stage comedy in the world, and will be open to all. The Rep is proud that the home of the prize is in the UK’s most diverse and youngest city, the city of one of Victoria’s major collaborators, Dame Julie Walters, and the city of so many contemporary comedians and writers such as Sir Lenny Henry, Joe Lycett and Meera Syal, CBE, FRSL. It is of course also the city where Victoria Wood herself went to university to study drama.
“Of the twin masks of drama – comedy and tragedy – often the focus from our industry, across acting, directing and writing, is on the latter. The Rep has been a pioneering force in UK theatre for over 100 years, and with the creation of this prize is once again opening up new possibilities… As a major theatre that celebrates the difficult art of making people laugh, we hope to become a national home for theatrical comedy – where writing, developing and creating that art is taken seriously.”
Alongside the Victoria Wood prize announcement, the Rep also announced the UK premiere of Bhangra Nation – A New Musical early next year.
Presented by the Tony Award-winning producers of Hadestown, Mara Isaacs and Tom Kirdahy, the musical has a book by Mike Lew and Rehanna Lew Mirza with music and lyrics by Sam Willmott. The musical will be directed by Stafford Arima and choreographed by Rujuta Vaidya.
First seen at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego in 2022 under the title Bhangin’ It, the musical comedy will be re-worked and rehearsed at the Birmingham venue ahead of its run in The House from 1 February to 9 March 2024.
Commenting on the musical, producers Isaacs and Kirdahy said: “Bhangra Nation – A New Musical is a joyful, exuberant celebration of Bhangra and a deeply felt exploration of identity and community among young people finding their own way forward in the world. We can’t imagine a better home to help launch Bhangra Nation than in Birmingham!”
The 2023/2024 season will also include a new version of the classic story Little Red Riding Hood, aimed at children aged three to six years old. The REP original production will be staged in the Rep’s smallest performance space, The Door, from 7 December 2023 until 6 January 2024.
Announcing the two productions, Foley said: ‘‘To be partnering with Bhangra Nation’s world class creative team, and co-producing this new musical with Mara Isaacs and Tom Kirdahy in the city that is the home of modern Bhangra is a thrill for everyone at The Rep.
“Little Red Riding Hood is our second Christmas show produced especially for young audiences, and we’re excited to welcome the newest of theatre-goers through our doors. We hope Birmingham will take both these extraordinary shows to its heart.”
Angela Thomas
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