The joint winners of the 2024 Popcorn Writing Awards are “VL” by Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair and “Weather Girl” by Brian Watkins.
The £6,500 prize will be shared between the winners and runners-up (The Book of Mountain and Seas and Knock on the Roof). Popcorn Group and BBC Writers will also provide career development support.
Written by Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair, VL explores the challenges and comedic absurdity of growing up in a small town school while being a VL (Virgin Lips).
Kieran and Gary said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have won the Popcorn Award for VL. When we write these characters together our first aim is to make each other laugh and to discover that Max and Stevie’s problems and struggles resonate with others is a huge reward. This award is testament to the work of Scott, Gav, Orla, Eve and the whole team who put so much faith in us and add value to everything we write. Special thanks to Francesca and everyone at FMP for giving us another chance. Sharing this award with Brian and the Weather Girl team is an honour and suggests that the FMP folks might know what they are doing when it comes to supporting new work.”
“Weather Girl” by Brian Watkins is a biting satire on climate change and the strange, dark heart of America.
Brian said: “I am honoured to receive this historic award and to be recognised alongside so many other brilliant playwrights. This play is a love letter to my homeland, with all its strangeness and dysfunctionality and dark, enchanted corners, and I am eternally grateful to the incredible team and audiences who have embraced it wholeheartedly. Chief among these collaborators are my partner in crime, actor Julia McDermott, whose genius brought the play to life, director Tyne Rafaeli and producer Francesca Moody. I couldn’t have done it without them. My deepest thanks go to the awards committee for this incredible honour and for doing God’s work in supporting new works.”
Second and third place go to Yilong Liu’s “The Book of Mountains and Seas,” a bittersweet journey exploring grief, culture clashes and the most unlikely of friendships, and Khawla Ibraheem’s “Knock on the Roof,” a poignant yet comedic tale of a mother’s resilience and survival instinct in war-torn Gaza.
A special mention went to Dylan MarcAurele’s Pop Off, Michelangelo!, a sharp-tongued and irreverent musical comedy that hilariously reinterprets the legendary rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, skillfully mixing historical inaccuracies with contemporary humor.
The winner and finalists were announced at the awards ceremony on Thursday morning at the Pleasance Courtyard Cabaret Bar in the presence of the winners and finalists. The awards were presented by Christopher Richardson, founder of Pleasance.
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