It was so difficult to choose between two talented young playwrights that the annual Stewart Parker Trust New Playwright Bursary was jointly awarded this year. Joseph Crilly and Chris Lee were presented with their awards by Sebastian Barry in the Abbey Theatre on Tuesday night, in the presence of the President, Mrs McAleese.
Born in Co Armagh and based in London, Joseph Crilly's award was for his play, Second Hand Thunder, produced by Tinderbox Theatre Company at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast. Chris Lee, from Dublin, received his award for The Electrocution of Children, which was produced by the Peacock Theatre. Lee has recently been appointed Anglo-Irish Bank Writer-In-Association with the National Theatre and his new play, The Map Maker's Sorrow, will be staged at the Peacock in the autumn.
The awards, offered annually to new Irish playwrights, were established in honour of the Belfast playwright, Stewart Parker, who died in 1988. Actor and playwright Pat Kinevane won the BBC Northern Ireland Stewart Parker Radio Drama Award of £1,000 for his play, The Nun's Wood, staged by Fishamble Theatre Company at the Project, Dublin, last year.
Poet and playwright Tom McIntyre received the BBC Northern Ireland's Irish Language Drama Award of £1,000 for the Peacock Theatre's production of his play, Caoineadh Ui Laoghaire. The Northern Ireland Community Relations Council Award of £3,000 went to playwright and director Declan Gorman for his play Hades in a production by his company, Upstate Theatre.