The Alfred Fagon Award is an annual prize for the best new play by a Black British playwright of Caribbean or African descent, resident in the United Kingdom. It was instituted in 1996 and first awarded in 1997, named in honour of the poet and playwright Alfred Fagon. The award is given with the support of the Peggy Ramsay Foundation and carries a prize of £6,000. It is widely regarded as the leading award for Black British playwrights.
Background The Alfred Fagon Award was established to commemorate the life and work of Alfred Fagon (1937–1986), a Jamaican-born playwright, poet and actor who was one of the most significant Black British playwrights of the 1970s and 1980s. Fagon died of a heart attack in August 1986 at the age of 49. Following his death, his friends organised a memorial evening at the Tricycle Theatre (now Kiln Theatre) in London, where donations collected during the evening formed the basis of a fund to support Black British playwrights.
The award was co-founded by Yvonne Brewster OBE, Roland Rees, Oscar James, Sheelagh Killeen Rees, Paul Stephenson OBE, and Mustapha Matura. Brewster, who co-founded Talawa Theatre Company in 1986, had been a close friend of Fagon's. Matura, the Trinidadian-born playwright in whose 1970 play Black Pieces Fagon had made his first professional stage appearance, had also encouraged Fagon to begin writing plays. The first award was presented to Roy Williams in 1997, supported by Arts Council England and the Peggy Ramsay Foundation.
The award was initially open to Black British playwrights of Caribbean descent. In 2006, on the occasion of its tenth anniversary, its scope was broadened to include playwrights of African descent. The tenth anniversary ceremony was held at the Royal Court Theatre, where Lorna French received the prize for her play Safe House, presented by Diane Abbott MP.
The award is a registered charity. The prize for the winning playwright is £6,000, awarded annually from an open call for submissions. The play does not need to have been professionally produced to be eligible.
For many years the award received administrative support from Talawa Theatre Company, and later from Tiata Fahodzi. Since 2014, administration and creative production has been provided by Pauline Walker of PDW Productions. Award ceremonies have been held at the Royal Court Theatre (1997–2007), the National Theatre (2008–2012; 2014–2015), the Tricycle Theatre (2013, now known as the Kiln Theatre), the Royal Court Theatre (2017), and the Dorfman Theatre at the National Theatre (2018, 2019, 2022, 2024, 2025). The 2020 ceremony was held digitally due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.
Two of the award's co-founders died in the 2020s. Paul Stephenson OBE passed away on 2 November 2024; Roy Williams OBE paid tribute to him at the 2024 ceremony. Yvonne Brewster OBE passed away in October 2025; tributes were paid to her at the 2025 ceremony by playwright Pat Cumper, Talawa Theatre Company Artistic Director Michael Buffong, and Trustee Olusola Oyeleye.
Other awards
Roland Rees Bursary The Roland Rees Bursary was inaugurated in 2015 in memory of Roland Rees, a co-founder and the first chair of the Alfred Fagon Award (1997–2009), who died in September 2015. Rees was a theatre director who co-founded Foco Novo, one of the earliest innovative touring fringe theatre companies in the UK, and had directed three of Alfred Fagon's plays during his lifetime. The bursary is funded by a legacy from the Roland Rees estate and awards £3,000 annually to a playwright to enable them to devote more time to their writing. It is awarded by the trustees rather than through open submission.
Mustapha Matura Award and Mentoring Programme The Mustapha Matura Award and Mentoring Programme was inaugurated in 2021 as part of the award's 25th anniversary celebrations, in memory of Mustapha Matura (1939–2019), the Trinidadian-born playwright who was a co-founder of the Alfred Fagon Award. Matura died in October 2019. The award is open to newly emerging Black playwrights of Caribbean or African descent aged 25 and under, and comprises a £3,000 cash prize and a nine-month mentoring programme with a leading Black British playwright. It is supported by the Estate of Mustapha Matura, the Garrick Charitable Trust, and The Henry and Mary Kent Trust.
The three awards — the Mustapha Matura Award, the Roland Rees Bursary, and the Alfred Fagon Award — are named in honour of three figures who were contemporaries, friends, and supporters of each other's work: Matura encouraged Fagon to write, Rees directed both Matura's and Fagon's early plays, and together they helped establish the award that bears Fagon's name.
Audience Award An Audience Award, voted for by the public, ran for three years from 2015 to 2017.
Winners The winner of Best New Play of the Year is indicated in bold and highlighted in . Shortlisted entries are highlighted in . Longlisted entries are unhighlighted. Shortlists and longlists are available from 2015 onwards; earlier years list the winner only.
Year Playwright Play Result 1997 Roy Williams Starstruck Winner 1998 Shenagh Cameron A Pocket in the Sky Winner 1999 Sheila White Maids Winner Grant Buchanan-Marshall The Prayer Winner 2000 Adeshegun Ikoli Surprise Surprise Winner 2001 Linda Brogan The Well Winner Penny Saunders Never Never Winner 2002 Trevor Williams Talkin' Loud Winner 2003 Marcia Layne Off Camera Winner 2004 Michael Abbensetts The Good Doctor's Son Winner 2005 Michael Bhim Daydreams of Hailey Winner 2006 Lorna French Safe House Winner 2007 Allia V Oswald Dirty Water Winner 2008 Paula B. Stanic What's Lost Winner 2009 Oladipo Agboluaje Iya-Ile Winner 2010 Roy Williams Sucker Punch Winner Rachel De-lahay SW11 Winner 2011 Levi David Addai Blacklands Winner 2012 Michaela Coel Chewing Gum Dreams Winner 2013 Diana Nneka Atuona Liberian Girl Winner 2014 Charlene James Cuttin' It Winner 2015 Theresa Ikoko Girls Winner David Judge Skipping Rope Shortlisted Deidan Williams Manhattan Out to Sea Shortlisted Eva Edo Looked After Children Shortlisted Tolula Dada Carrot or Stick Shortlisted Andrew Rajan Afghanistan Longlisted Beverley Andrews Circles Longlisted Chantal Campbell Playing Tom Longlisted Dianna Hunt Mona's Room Longlisted Edson Burton Icarus in Love Longlisted Matilda Ibini Elector8 Longlisted Max Kolaru Not Cricket Longlisted May Sumbwanyambe After Independence Longlisted Rayna Campbell Manchester Divided Longlisted Rex Obano The Moors of England Longlisted Roy Williams The Fear Longlisted Simon Michael Brett White House Longlisted Trevor Williams Killing Time Longlisted Yasmin Joseph Pinch Longlisted 2016 Lorna French City Melodies Winner Max Kolaru Traffick Jam Shortlisted Natasha Marshall Half Breed Shortlisted Annette Brook Gala Mae Longlisted Beverly Andrews Awa's Journey Longlisted Edd Muruako Magnetic Longlisted Emma Dennis-Edwards The Yard Longlisted Kalungi Ssebandeke ASSATA: She Who Struggles Longlisted Liz Mytton Red Snapper Longlisted Lola Olarewaju Bastard Child Longlisted Michelle Inniss She Called Me Mother Longlisted Mufaro Makubika Miracles Longlisted Patrice Etienne Mum Longlisted Somalia Seaton Fall of the Kingdom Rise of the Foot Soldier Longlisted 2017 Mufaro Makubika Shebeen Winner Archie Maddocks Nine Nights Shortlisted David Judge SparkPlug Shortlisted Inua Ellams Barber Shop Chronicles Shortlisted Melanie Pennant A Black Fella Walks into a Bar Shortlisted Adura Onashile Expensive S*** Longlisted Gabriel Gbadamosi Stop & Search Longlisted Max Kolaru 24 Grenfell Storey's Longlisted Tife Kusoro We Have Sinned Longlisted 2018 Winsome Pinnock Rockets and Blue Lights Winner Chinonyerem Odimba Princess & The Hustler Shortlisted David Judge PanLid Shortlisted Dexter Flanders Foxes Shortlisted Tife Kusoro Butterfly Shortlisted Abraham Adeyemi These Minging Streets Longlisted Ben Tagoe When We Were Brothers Longlisted Mahad Ali My Brother's Keeper Longlisted Olivia Hannah Braids Longlisted 2019 Jasmine Lee-Jones Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner Winner Carmen Harris Foreign Shortlisted Nick Makoha The Dark Shortlisted Nicôle Lecky Superhoe Shortlisted Ryan Calais Cameron Retrograde Shortlisted Tonderai Munyevu Comrades, Mugabe, My Dad and Me Shortlisted Archie Maddocks Pan on the Tyne Longlisted Juliet Gilkes Romero State of the Union Longlisted Nicole Latchana OCO-2 Longlisted Patricia Cumper Red Dirt Longlisted Roy Williams and Clint Dyer Death of England Longlisted Tolula Dada Marry or Burn Longlisted Tyrell Williams Red Pitch Longlisted 2020 Juliet Gilkes Romero The Whip Winner babirye bukilwa ...blackbird hour Shortlisted Clint Dyer and Roy Williams Death of England: Delroy Shortlisted Daniel Ward The Canary & The Crow Shortlisted Emma Dennis-Edwards BRICKS Shortlisted JC Niala Unsettled Shortlisted Chantelle Dusette EV(E)OLUTION Longlisted Esohe Uwadiae She Is A Place Called Home Longlisted Inua Ellams Three Sisters Longlisted Lewis Charlesworth Token Longlisted Nicole Latchana The Process Longlisted Phoebe McIntosh The Soon Life Longlisted Ronke Adékoluẹjo Teleportation Longlisted Wela Mbusi A Far Cry From Home Longlisted 2021 Mojisola Adebayo Family Tree Winner Benedict Lombe Lava Shortlisted Dipo Baruwa-Etti The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars Shortlisted Louisa Hayford AHEMMAA (QUEENS) Shortlisted Somebody Jones HOW I LEARNED TO SWIM Shortlisted Zodwa Nyoni The Darkest Part of the Night Shortlisted babirye bukilwa ...cake Longlisted Faith Omole My Father's Fable Longlisted Kalungi Ssebandeke Water Made For Giants Longlisted Rex Obano The Hamlet Voyage Longlisted Shenagh Cameron Turpentine & Tobacco Longlisted 2022 Hannah Shury-Smith Go Back Home! Winner Hannah Rose Caton The Bridge Between You and Everything Shortlisted Kwame Owusu Dreaming and Drowning Shortlisted Beru Tessema House of Ife Longlisted Catherine Bisset Placeholder Longlisted Chukwudi Onwere Deptford Baby Longlisted Lakesha Arie-Angelo Runaway Bay Longlisted 2023 Faith Omole Kaleidoscope Winner Coral Wylie Lavender, Hyacinth, Violet, Yew. Shortlisted Esohe Uwadiae Pots and Pans and Prayers Shortlisted John Rwothomack Never Look Back Shortlisted Lanre Malaolu Samskara Shortlisted Shona Bukola Babayemi boxes Shortlisted Tia-Renee Mullings Little Angela Davis Shortlisted Daniel Rusteau Dismissed Longlisted Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor The Immigrant Joy Longlisted 2024 Inua Ellams Once Upon A Time in Sokoto Winner Azuka Oforka The Women of Llanrumney Shortlisted Jason David Art Boy Shortlisted Max Kolaru Alphabet Spaghetti Shortlisted Natasha Cottriall HOME Shortlisted Tife Kusoro The Last Black Girl on Earth Shortlisted JC Niala 1918 Longlisted Mahad Ali The Fall of Radley Road Longlisted Robert Awosusi Black Power Playlist Longlisted Sasha Frost Froggy Longlisted Steven Kavuma Todduka Longlisted Tamzin Murray Doughnuts and Ice Cream Longlisted 2025 Harry Mould The Brenda Line Winner Lanre Malaolu Now I See Shortlisted Mahad Ali The Spin Room Shortlisted Ntombizodwa Nyoni Liberation Shortlisted Yasmine Dankwah rite to party Shortlisted Asa Haynes The Attack of the 50ft Black Woman Longlisted Kaleb D'Aguilar How to Keep Warm in Winter Longlisted Lettie Precious 12 Letters To My Name Longlisted Llyrio Boateng A False Friend Longlisted
Legacy and published works The Alfred Fagon Award has played a significant role in nurturing Black British playwrights who have gone on to major careers in theatre, film and television. Several winning and shortlisted plays have been published by leading drama publishers and gone on to productions at the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Court Theatre and in the West End.
Winners