David Williamson Prize-supported play Jailbaby announced for Griffin's 2023 season

19 September, 2022

The Australian Writers’ Guild is delighted by Griffin Theatre Company’s announcement that Suzie Miller’s Jailbaby will receive its world premiere in 2023.

Described by Griffin as ‘a spiritual sequel to her international phenomenon Prima Facie’, Miller’s new work interrogates Australia’s legal system and the sexual violence that is perpetrated against men in prison.

An AWG member, Miller won the David Williamson Prize for Excellence in Writing for Australian Theatre for her acclaimed Prima Facie at the 2020 AWGIE Awards. Griffin Theatre Company received $80,000 for dramaturgical and development support to nurture a new Australian work to the stage, while Miller received $20,000. The fund has significantly contributed to the programming of Jailbaby.  

Presented since 2013, the David Williamson Prize for Excellence in Writing for Australian Theatre has been made possible by the generous donation of David and Kristin Williamson and Shane and Cathryn Brennan. The prize is awarded by the Australian Writers’ Guild each year to the most outstanding script selected from the winners of each of the theatre categories at the AWGIE Awards. The express purpose of the fund is to encourage theatre companies to commission, develop and program a new Australian work.

Previous recipients of the prize include Alana Valentine for Grounded (2013), Andrew Bovell for The Secret River (2014), Finegan Kruckemeyer for The Boy at the Edge of Everything (2015), Angus Cerini for The Bleeding Tree (2016), Leah Purcell for The Drover’s Wife (2017), P.J. Hogan with Kate Miller-Heidke & Keir Nuttall for Muriel’s Wedding the Musical (2018), Kate Mulvany for The Harp in the South (2019), Suzie Miller for Prima Facie (2020) and Claire Della and the Moon (2021) by Ellen Graham and Jamie Hornsby.
 
To learn more about Jailbaby, view Griffin’s 2023 season HERE.