Shakespeare’s Globe, Climate Spring, and Fern Culture are delighted to announce the shortlist for the 2026 Climate Playwriting Prize, set up to help embolden and champion playwrights engaging with the climate crisis and to uncover the most exciting, boundary-pushing and accessible new plays about this subject: the biggest story of our times.
The shortlist is as follows: Exposure by Aaron Sze, Merrymeade by Coral Wylie, The Play That Solves Everything by Grace Waga Glevey, Llandonna Witches by John Dawson, Gods and Monsters by Johnny Flynn and Robert Macfarlane, Wilt by Kieran Knowles, Pelt by Kitty Archer, No Eels this Year by Sydney Trotter, Tiny Alarms by Timothy X Atack, and Cambium Layer by Zoe Cooper.
The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony at Shakespeare’s Globe on Friday 27 November, and will win a prize of £15,000 and dramaturgical support to develop the play.
The Judges for the 2026 Climate Playwriting Prize are Sir Lenny Henry, Lucy Kirkwood, Nancy Medina, Professor Pablo Mukherjee, Amir Nizar Zuabi, Lucy Stone, and Shakespeare’s Globe’s Artistic Director Michelle Terry.
The Climate Playwriting Prize has been delivered in association with partner organisations Chichester Festival Theatre, Exeter Northcott Theatre, Leeds Playhouse, Lyric Theatre Belfast, Mercury Theatre Colchester, New Earth Theatre, Pentabus Theatre, and tiata fahodzi. Each theatre has fed into the judging process and hosted a climate storytelling workshop delivered by the Globe and Fern Culture and run by directors Guy Jones and Daniel Bailey and playwright Nina Segal, and featured local climate experts and writers including Amy Liptrott in Leeds and Dara McAnulty in Belfast.
Guy Jones, New Work Associate at Shakespeare’s Globe, said “We had 614 applications for the Climate Playwriting Prize. In a year defined by extreme heatwaves, with the climate making itself known more acutely than ever in our day-to-day lives, addressing the crisis is clearly a priority for theatre artists. The plays have been a source of righteous rage and huge optimism; they are bold and they are entertaining. This shortlist represents writers from all over the country, many of whom wrote their play in response to our callout, inspired by workshops they attended over the summer. Some of them are early in their playwriting careers, and others have been writing for decades. Their plays uncover stories from urban, suburban and rural communities in the UK. They take us on a journey to Caribbean islands, Ugandan protest movements, Loch Neagh in Northern Ireland and ancient Iraq. They delve into what folk cultures across the world have to teach us, the value of activism, and remind us of the people who might get left behind if we’re not careful. And they ask provocative questions about what role a story might have in all of this anyway. Huge thanks to everyone who sent us a play: we celebrate the imagination and bravery of writers. We need them now more than ever.”
The shortlisted writers’ biographies are as follows:
Kitty Archer is a Tower Hamlets born actress and writer. She is a BRIT School and RADA graduate. On stage, she has performed at The Royal Court, The National Theatre, The Old Vic, The Donmar Warehouse and with English Touring Theatre. She has an Ian Charleson Award Commendation, and received a Best Actress nomination at the Stage Debut Awards. Kitty has had her work developed and read with support from FAFO Productions, RADA’s Graduate New Writing Workshops and The Rosemary Branch Theatre.
Timothy X Atack is a writer, composer, and theatre sound designer from Bristol. His debut novel Father Alberto and the Flying Girl was published by Chatto & Windus in 2026. Stage plays include the queer sci-fi heartbreaker DELAY (Bristol Old Vic 2025) and ghost story Heartworm (winner of the Bruntwood Prize for playwriting 2017). Audio drama includes the eco-thriller sci-fi series Forest 404 (BBC Sounds, WGGB and ARIA awards for best radio drama 2020). Alongside director Tanuja Amarasuriya he’s co-founder of Sleepdogs, and makes music under the name TXA.
Zoe Cooper’s adaptation of Mrs Dalloway will open at the Royal Shakespeare Company in spring 2027, directed by the Co-Artistic Director, Tamara Harvey. Zoe’s original work includes Out of Water and Jess and Joe Forever (Orange Tree). Further adaptations include Northanger Abbey (Orange Tree, Theatre by the Lake, Bolton Octagon, Stephen Joseph Theatre) and A Song for Ella Grey (Pilot Theatre, Northern Stage). She was Writer in Residence at the RSC (2024-2026) and is a Senior Lecturer at Newcastle University. Shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award, and the Women’s Prize for Playwriting.
John Dawson is a Welsh writer, composer and theatre maker. Raised in rural Snowdonia, his creative career began in performance and music, including creating and performing original work for television with S4C and Boomerang. He was listed for Welsh National Theatre’s inaugural commission competition in 2026, and recent writing credits include commissions for The Customs House and Hooley Theatre. Alongside his own creative practice, John is Artist Development Producer at Live Theatre, Newcastle, where he has spent the past decade supporting writers in developing their work.
Grace Waga Glevey is a theatre maker from Humberside specialising in comedy and new writing. Her work often engages with climate, class and heritage and has been supported by Sheffield Theatres, New Earth Theatre and HOME MCR, among others. Grace is also a freelance dramaturg, script reader and assistant director (Middle Child, Gate Theatre). She trained in the Jerwood HighTide Writers Group and on the Old Vic Theatre Makers programme.
Kieran Knowles trained at Loughborough University and LAMDA. His first play Operation Crucible was performed at the Finborough Theatre, Sheffield Crucible and a UK tour before transferring to New York and being broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Other plays include Chicken Soup (with Ray Castleton, Sheffield Crucible), 31 Hours (Bunker Theatre), Some People Feel the Rain (Manchester Royal Exchange), Comet (Pleasance), Cornerstone (BBC Radio 4), and The Herald (UK tour with folk band Megson).
Robert Macfarlane’s many books include Underland, Landmarks and The Old Ways, as well as a prose-poem/mystery play, Ness and, most recently, Is a River Alive?. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages, won prizes around the world, and been widely adapted for theatre, film, music, radio and dance. He has also written operas, plays, choral works and films; as a lyricist, he’s written albums and songs with numerous musicians, including his co-author of Gods and Monsters, Johnny Flynn.
Johnny Flynn is a composer, actor, musician and writer. His writing includes the radio play Magnitsky the Musical with Robert Hudson, Zog with Mike Shepherd, a version of the mystery plays at Shunt and a two-person story-song show with Robert Macfarlane at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and on tour. As an actor he performs in theatre (Jerusalem, Hangmen, The Motive and the Cue); film (Beast, Emma, One Life); and TV (Lovesick, Genius, Ripley, Mobland). He often writes music for screen, stage and radio and has released seven studio albums and toured the world with his band.
Sydney Trotter is a Belfast-based playwright who spent five years writing privately, simply for the pleasure of it. In 2025, he entered a writing competition advertised by Cardboard Citizens. His piece led to a commission, and his monologue Me An’ Pip was subsequently published by Nick Hern Books in the anthology More Than One Story and performed at London’s Trafalgar Theatre. Syd is a member of Belfast Playwrights and has also had work produced at the Black Box in Belfast. His plays explore working-class lives, relationships and the choices people make under pressure.
Aaron Sze is a British-Ugandan playwright. He was nominated for The Stage Debut Awards (2025) and The London Pub Theatre Awards (2025) for his debut play, Belly of the Beast, which had its production run at Finborough Theatre (2025). He was part of The Royal Court Playwriting group (2024). He won the last ETPEP award (2022) and took part in Pleasance Theatre’s Futures’ Festival and Omnibus Theatre’s Engine Room (2022). He had his first theatre commission, Claudia Jones with Blue Elephant Theatre. Exposure is his second full length play. Coral Wylie is a writer, performer and environmental dramaturg from Shepherd’s Bush. Their work finds its voice in the natural world (most often bugs), playing in the overlaps of science and art. They have been a member of Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab and the Bush Theatre Emerging Writers’ Group. Coral’s debut play Lavender, Hyacinth, Violet, Yew., was shortlisted for The Alfred Fagon Award 2023 before opening at the Bush Theatre in February 2025. In 2026, Coral wrote COMPOST WHAT’S LEFT for ZooCo x Boundless’sYoCo scheme, running at Southwark Playhouse Elephant.
