Shahid Iqbal Khan is one of the nine playwrights shortlisted for the George Devine Award this year, for his play Djinnity.
The winner of the prestigious new writing award will receive a £15,000 prize to support their future as a playwright.
The George Devine Awards were established in 1966 in memory of the Royal Court's founding Artistic Director, George Devine. Former winners include Tyrell Williams is 2022 for Red Pitch and Emily White in 2021 for Atlantis. Previous years' winners also include Lucy Prebble, Alice Birch, Daniel Ward and Diana Nneka Atuona.
The judging panel for the 2023 awards consists of: Nick Payne, Justin Audibert, Johnny Flynn, Nimmo Ismail, Rebekah Murrell and Roxana Silbert.
Actor and 2023 Award judge Johnny Flynn said in a statement: ‘‘It has been an extraordinary privilege to read these plays and I have been bowled over by their inventiveness. Each one pushes the form in a totally unique way, and yet despite their extreme differences in style, it’s amazing to see common themes in many of them. Entertaining worlds filled with artificial intelligence, witches, power imbalances and social media out-of-control spanning nearly 500 years have led us to reconsider what it is to be human in 2023, and beyond. It makes me realise how lucky we are to have a culture of theatre in this country that is on the frontline of thought and ideas bringing us together as a society.”
The full list of nominees is as follows: Georgia Bruce for Time, Like the Sea; Sami Ibrahim for NGO; Shahid Iqbal Khan for Djinnity; Somebody Jones for How I Learned to Swim; Tife Kusoro for G; Cordelia Lynn for Witch Play; Ava Pickett for 1536; Bea Roberts for Those Who (Are/Were) Left; and Sam Ward for Everything I’m Thinking All of the Time.
The winner will be announced next week.
