The Stage

Pair collect Whiting Award for original stage writing

Published Tuesday 31 October 2006 at 15:15 by Alistair Smith

James Phillips and Fraser Grace have won the 2006 John Whiting Award for new playwriting, in what threatens to be the prestigious prize’s final year.

They join an illustrious list of past winners, including Tom Stoppard, Edward Bond, David Lan and Tanika Gupta, and have won for their works Rubinstein Kiss and Breakfast with Mugabe respectively. Both plays tackle political issues, with Phillips’ piece set in McCarthy era America and Grace’s in present day Zimbabwe.

Phillips’ success capped a remarkable fortnight for the playwright, having also won the Theatrical Management Association award for his debut work. “It’s been a very nice couple of weeks,” he commented. “Receiving the John Whiting is terrific and it will be a massive amount of help for me. The best thing is that Edward Bond has won it, Stoppard has won it - it’s a strange feeling but a wonderful one.”

Arts Council England executive director of arts Kim Evans commented: “Writing is the life-blood of theatre and the arts council is proud to support new writing in a number of ways, including this year’s John Whiting Award. Both James Phillips and Fraser Grace thoroughly deserve this award. They have written imaginative and thought provoking works which not only entertain but offer an insight into the world around us - exactly what the best theatre should do.”

The two winners will split the prize money of £6,000. However, as revealed by The Stage last week, the John Whiting Award is facing an uncertain future after ACE revealed it would not fund or administer the prize beyond this year. Both Phillips and Grace stressed that it was crucial that future support was found for the award.

Grace, who was also joint winner of the Verity Bargate award in 1996, added: “Anything that helps you stay in the game and means you don’t have to go on it is good. It helps you keep on writing. We [playwrights] all want to write our next play.

“It is certainly a moment for people who care about playwriting to come forward, because there’s not much around that recognises the craft.”

Phillips is working on his second stage play - a love story set in France in the 19th century - while Grace’s latest play Frobisher’s Gold is now playing at the Shaw Theatre.

ACE has stressed that it is in discussions with other institutions, as it attempts to secure a future for the 42-year-old award. However, to date, no deal has been struck.