Actor Nathan Queeley-Dennis wins Bruntwood Prize 2022 with debut play

Nathan Queeley-Dennis has won the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2022 with his debut play, which explores black friendship and masculinity. 

Queeley-Dennis is a Birmingham-born actor, whose credits include Bijan Sheibani’s A Taste of Honey at National Theatre and Chinonyerem Odimba’s Black Love at Kiln Theatre.

He was awarded £16,000 for his first play, Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz, which was described by judge Julie Hesmondhalgh as "a joyful galloping hymn to black friendship and love and tender masculinity".

The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting is presented at Manchester’s Royal Exchange, in partnership with commercial property developer Bruntwood.

The Judges’ Award of £8,000 for a runner-up went to Ipswich-based writer, producer and actor Martha Loader for Bindweed, which explores domestic violence.

Liverpool-based playwright, dramaturg and script reader Patrick Hughes’ play Leave the Morning to the Morning won the inaugural North West Original New Voice Award and Residency, which was launched in recognition of the prize’s northern home. Hughes will receive £10,000 and a one-year residency in partnership with Bruntwood and the Oglesby Charitable Trust.

The international award was won by Hong Kong-born, multidisciplinary artist Roshelle Fong, who is based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia.

Fong’s play The Red Lead 红铅 explores sisterhood, survival and an attempt to rise up in 1542 Ming-dynasty China.

All four winning playwrights will now enter a development process with the Royal Exchange. 

Amanda Parker, chair of the 2022 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting judging panel, said: “The Bruntwood Prize yet again delivered plays that speak to the urgent issues of our times, in ways that are unexpected, fresh, thrilling and compelling. The judging panel would like to thank all who entered the competition and congratulate the shortlisted 14, whose creative energies gave us such a rich feast of imagining.

“Through tough debate, because all were excellent, and deep reflection, because we felt passionately about all of them, we landed on the winning entries. Our winners offered us challenge and a new lens on universal concerns [and] made us laugh at the dizzying truth of the worlds they created and weep in sympathy with the horrors portrayed."

Roy Alexander Weise, joint artistic director at the Royal Exchange and Bruntwood Prize judge, added: “The prize is such a vital snapshot of the nation’s story. As readers and judges, we’ve learnt so much about the states of various wide-ranging worlds and perspectives. In all the stories [there is] a longing: for better, for more, for space, for revolution, for love, for peace – cries that echo across the planet."

Other judges included director Miranda Cromwell, winner of the inaugural Bruntwood Prize International Award Kimber Lee, local exchange ambassador at the Royal Exchange Farai Matekenya Nhakaniso and non-executive director at Bruntwood Kate Vokes.