It’s an extraordinary privilege to celebrate the remarkable achievement of our 100 longlisted writers as part of the 20th anniversary of the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting. These playwrights have shared their imaginations, vulnerabilities, and artistic visions with us, and that act of creative courage deserves our deepest admiration. Each script represents not just a story, but a unique voice and perspective that enriches who we are today. The diversity of themes, styles, and innovations our readers have encountered speaks to the vibrant health of new writing across the UK and internationally. The Bruntwood Prize continues to be a vital platform for discovering exceptional talent, and the Royal Exchange is honoured to be part of this journey. I look forward to reading the shortlist of plays and to be part of this unique journey of theatrical discovery.

– Selina Cartmell, Artistic Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre and 2025 Judge

Over the past four months we’ve been through a rigorous and anonymous reading process with a panel of varied readers in order to reach this Longlist. All plays submitted for the competition are subjected to the same criteria. You can read more about that process here. And it’s not quite finished yet. Our readers are still working towards the Shortlist of fifteen plays that we share with the judges for the award, and all scripts continue to remain strictly anonymous throughout this process. So if you see your title below feel free to celebrate but we ask that you don’t reveal the title publicly until the announcement of the Shortlist the week commencing Monday 23rd June.

We make this Longlist announcement publicly here to ensure swift communication because many writers chose to enter with anonymised email addresses that might not be checked regularly. For more information about next steps, please see the bottom of this page.

The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2025 Longlist

Next steps

• with the shortlisted writers directly by telephone on Friday 16th May 
• with all longlisted writers by email early in the week commencing Monday 19th May 

The Judges will then receive the Shortlist of 15 plays and will meet on Monday 16th June to deliberate. These shortlisted playwrights will not be announced until the week commencing Monday 23rd June to allow for this final stage of the judging process to take place in total anonymity.

We will be in touch with all longlisted writers via the email address supplied on submitting your script. We will then provide a full script report to support the further life of your play – including responses, feedback and questions raised throughout the reading process and suggestions and provocations for a new draft should you be undertaking one. These script reports are freshly commissioned from a new phase of readers, with access to the comments of all previous readers. They will be shared with longlisted writers by Monday 1st September.

We also seek to introduce longlisted writers to any readers who might be directors or other creatives who’ve expressed an interest in making contact about your work. For writers based outside London, we’ll look to introduce you to your regional producing theatres in consultation with you. And as the Royal Exchange Theatre is based in Manchester, we will also be in touch to meet any writers based in the North West ourselves.

We do not currently have the capacity to enter into any other correspondence about where your script reached in the reading process. We are unable to give feedback on scripts which did not make it into the Longlist, due to both the high number of entries we receive and our commitment to providing all feedback as a constructive and full script report to support writers with the next phase of their work.