SUCKER PUNCH PLAYWRIGHT ROY WILLIAMS WINS BEST THEATRE PLAY AT WRITERS' GUILD OF GREAT BRITAIN AWARDS
Published on Thu 17 Nov 2011Roy Williams has won the prize for Best Theatre Play for Sucker Punch, at this year’s Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Awards, announced yesterday, 16 November 2011. Fellow nominees included Richard Bean for The Big Fellah and Moira Buffini for Welcome to Thebes.
Sucker Punch, depicting a boxing match between two former friends, played to critical acclaim at the Royal Court in June and July 2010 and saw the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs transformed into a boxing ring. Sucker Punch was also nominated for an Evening Standard Award for Best Play, while Daniel Kaluuya was awarded a special Editors Award for a Shooting Star at the same ceremony. It also co-won the Alfred Fagan Award in 2012, shared with Rachel De-lahay for The Westbridge, currently playing at Theatre Local in Peckham.
The Royal Court has supported Roy and his work from early in his career through the Jerwood New Playwrights programme, sponsored by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, and has produced his plays Lift Off and Clubland in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs and Fallout in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs.