Alexi Kaye Campbell wins 2009 Whiting Award for The Pride

Published Friday 16 October 2009 at 10:41 by Alistair Smith

Alexi Kaye Campbell has won the Whiting Award for his play The Pride, which ran at London’s Royal Court Theatre last year.

The award of £6,000 was presented at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre last night. The Pride, which examines the changing attitudes to homosexuality over half a century, was chosen from a total of 45 scripts submitted. The Pride has already seen Campbell pick up two other awards - the Critics’ Circle Prize for Most Promising Playwright and the Olivier award for Outstanding Achievement.

Chairman of the judges, script reader Ben Jancovich, said: “It is a cliche for judges to say their decision was a tough one, but this year the quality of the submissions was extraordinary. It says something about the very healthy state of theatre writing in Britain today, when any of the shortlisted plays this year could have easily won. Because of this we also wanted to make a special commendation to two of the shortlisted writers: Steve Waters’ monumental The Contingency Plan for The Bush and Simon Stephens’ bold and audacious play, Pornography for Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Traverse.”

Commenting on The Pride, Jancovich said “Alexi Kaye Campbell has an unparalleled eye for character, humanity and wit and it is remarkable that another of his plays, Apologia, also made it onto the shortlist. The judging panel choose The Pride for its bold structure and political resonance.”

Kaye Campbell was unable to attend the award ceremony as he is currently in the US casting for The Pride, which will open in New York in February 2010. He said: “I feel very honoured and humbled to win this important award. I would like to thank the judges for their decision - it means a great deal to me that my work has been recognised by such a distinguished panel. I would also like to thank Peter Wolff and Louisa Prodromou of the Peter Wolff Trust for their generosity.”

The other plays that made it on to the shortlist for the 2009 award were Monday by Paula Stanic, Another Paradise by Sayan Kent, Cockroach by Sam Holcroft, Pornography by Simon Stephens, The Contingency Plan by Steve Waters, The Monster Under the Bed by Kevin Dyer and Apologia by Alexi Kaye Campbell.

The Peter Wolff Theatre Trust has funded the Whiting Award since 2008 , after Arts Council England removed its financial support for the prize, which was established in 1965 to give recognition to the writer of a new play that demonstrated an original and distinctive development in dramatic writing.

A consortium of theatres, headed by London’s Hampstead Theatre, took over running the Whiting award in 2007. This consortium includes Birmingham Repertory Theatre, London’s Royal Court, Soho Theatre, Paines Plough, Nottingham Playhouse, Traverse Theatre, The Bush Theatre, Nuffield Southampton, and Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse. Previous winners include David Edgar, Terry Johnson and Tom Stoppard