Laura Waldren wins 2023 Papatango prize for new writing

Laura Waldren has won the 15th annual Papatango New Writing Prize for her first full-length play Some Demon.

Waldren’s play was selected from 1,468 entries. 

The winning play Some Demon explores life inside an eating disorder unit and will have its world première at the Arcola Theatre in summer 2024, and will also be published by Nick Hern Books. 

The four shortlisted writers will each receive £500 and their plays will be filmed as staged readings, digitally broadcast for a global network on the Playwright’s Laboratory. They are Piers Black for My Dad Hunts Bears; Georgia Green for Private Adult Things; Yolanda Mercy for Handsworth Boys; and Hannah Shury-Smith for Go Back Home!.

Judged anonymously, the Papatango New Writing Prize guaranteed a new writer a full production, publication by Nick Hern Books, a royalty of 8% of the box office and a £7,000 commission with full developmental support. 

Waldren said: “It’s a huge privilege – and a massive shock – to have won. I entered the prize hoping to get some feedback, and never expected in a million years this would happen. Eating disorders are still deeply misunderstood illnesses and this has been a very difficult, personal but important play to write – I’m so honoured that Papatango has chosen to share it, especially given how hard it is right now for debut writers to get their work read, let alone produced.”
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