GRIFFIN AWARD 2017 : DAVID FINNIGAN’S ‘KILL CLIMATE DENIERS’

Featured photo – Griffin Award 2017 winner David Finnigan. Photo by Javier Vela. Inset photos by Brett Boardman.

In promoting and encouraging new, emerging Australian playwrights, the Griffin Theatre Company is continuing to evolve and grow.

Under the Artistic Direction of Lee Lewis, Griffin has become an audience favourite, as evidenced last Sunday by a full house of writers, fellow actors and loyal supporters at the annual 2017 Griffin Award.

The Griffin Award is now in its twentieth year and recognises an ‘outstanding play or performance text that displays an authentic, inventive and contemporary Australian voice.’

The winner received a $10,000 prize and the runners-up $1,000. Of the 95 entries this year, only 5 were shortlisted.

The winner was David Finnigan for Kill Climate Deniers, a sharp and satirical look at politics, the two-party system coming face to face with a global-scale crisis unfolding over decades.

The other 4 shortlisted plays this year were: Kit Brookman for The Bees Are All Dead, Ang Collins for Blueberry Play, Emme Hoy for Extinction of the Learned Response and Brooke Robinson for Good Cook. Friendly. Clean. 

The play readings were stimulating, clever and funny and all refreshingly different. It would be good to see these plays, in their entirety, on stage some time soon.

If you are a playwright and wish to be notified when applications for 2018 open, go to the Griffin website, Griffin Award, and fill out a form. For other queries, email: submissions@griffintheatre.com.au