Young Playwrights Award 2026
About Young Playwrights Award 2026
We are thrilled to present the Young Playwrights Award Festival 2026, a celebration of our second year running the competition, and our first with a national reach. This year, we received over 260 plays from writers aged 13-18 from all over the UK.
Ranging from comedy to the supernatural to family drama, this year's winning plays cover a complex range of themes including generational disconnect, grief, the strength of female friendships, and all encompass what it means to be a young person both past and present. From a haunted prom dress to a secret boyfriend in a school locker, all six of these plays have been written with a mass of empathy and humour.
The festival brings together the winning plays, presented as staged readings in our Theatre Upstairs, directed by Royal Court Trainee Directors Mayaan Haputantri and Danielle Kassaraté, and performed by professional actors.
13 - 15 age category:
You’ll Live by Rufus Peaty
‘What if this wasn’t just a dress being sold online, what if it’s a burden, a nightmare, a body that someone doesn’t want anymore…’
Abbie’s prom dress was a steal at £5.39 from Vinted, and according to her best mate Amira, she looks unreal.
But ever since it’s been hanging up in her wardrobe everything in life feels overwhelming. What if buying this dress from watchman99 was one big mistake...
You’ll Live by Rufus Peaty is a haunting but humorous play about teen-hood and self-discovery.
Fruit. by Lucy Edda Leggatt
“Whenever you sit here, I will always be beside you.”
It’s the 17th Century, and best friends Elizabeth and Jane dream of growing old together.
But when visions begin to visit Elizabeth, she starts refusing food in a quest for purity - and even Jane can’t make her eat.
Lucy Edda Leggatt’s Fruit is a raw, heartfelt and eerie exploration of friendship and devotion.
A Shadow on the Ocean by Lucy Varley
“Do you still love your dad?”
After a ferry disaster leaves seventeen-year-old Ismail stranded at sea, he finds himself trapped in a lifeboat with a strange young girl.
As hunger and exhaustion begin to take hold, their conversation drifts towards grief, guilt and finding your way back to the people you love.
A Shadow on the Ocean is a tender play by Lucy Varley.
16 - 18 age category:
Bus Stop of Strangers by Thomas Mossman
“I was standing up for what’s right.”
It’s Sunday morning at a bus stop. Chris wants to reconnect with his teenage son, Kenneth. But what begins as awkward small talk soon spirals into a clash over identity, masculinity and anger.
Thomas Mossman’s Bus Stop of Strangers is a tense, sharp exploration of political division at its most personal.
You Can’t Say That by Dhaani Singh
“You can’t say that, Mum.”
Tanya’s questioning everything - language, politics, identity. Her mum just wants to get it right. But the rules keep changing.
A family kitchen becomes a generational battleground in Dhaani Singh’s funny and excruciatingly familiar play.
Build-a-Boyfriend (please don’t leave) by Lucy Nicholas
“He said he’d never leave.”
Seventeen-year-old May has always had Lottie. But when first love pulls her best friend away, she finds comfort in a boy of her own - devoted, needy and dangerously hungry.
Lucy Nicholas’ darkly funny play explores girlhood and the fear of being left behind.
