The Australian Writers’ Guild is delighted to announce the winners of the 2026 Shane & Cathryn Brennan Prize for Playwriting, Dasun Abeygoonawardana and Ciella Williams.
Winning the Stage category, emerging playwright Dasun Abeygoonawardana’s 1996 is a warm and nostalgic play about two Australian teenagers set against the backdrop of the 1996 Cricket World Cup.
Abeygoonawardana, a Sydney-based writer and performer, reflected on winning the Prize, saying, “I’m gobsmacked. It was thrilling to even be part of the prize conversation, let alone win. This story has been kicking around my head for a while but I never had the courage to put pen to paper until this year. It’s humbling and surreal to think something so personal could also resonate with others. This has definitely lit a fire to grow and develop both the play and my craft, and I’m excited to see where this path may lead.”
The judging panel praised 1996 as “a beautifully written coming of age story, told with specificity and a strong command of craft. 1996 puts a compelling friendship under the test as these young characters, imbued with warmth and humanity, are forced to navigate the very relevant themes of war, division, and cricket.”
The judges awarded two scripts as highly-commended in the Stage category, Wendy Mocke’s Wansolwara and Jamie Garner’s Hungry Johannes.
In the Theatre For Young Audience category, Ciella Williams took home the top prize for her play Life is Swift, a comedy about regional teens with big aspirations and even bigger feelings who are sucked through a portal into Taylor Swift’s Version of the Universe.
Playwright and theatre-maker Williams said: “I am so blown away to receive this award. Thank you, thank you, thank you! What an honour to have been shortlisted alongside so many incredible Australian playwrights. Thank you to the judges for this recognition, and to Shane and Cathryn Brennan for championing new Australian plays. What a wonderful gift to the world at a time when we need it most!”
“Darwin is a wonderful place to be making theatre, but it can also be tricky. We feel very far away from the national scene, so to be recognised with this national award means more than I can say. Thank you for celebrating regional stories. We want this play to reach and speak to regional teens all over the country, and I am so excited for the doors this award may open.”
The judging panel described Life Is Swift as “a delightfully bonkers and original exploration of parasocial relationships and the complexities of teenage friendship. With authentic dialogue, inventive shifts in time and character, and a playful theatricality, this play takes creative swings that pay off. The judges were unanimous in their decision: Life is Swift knows its audience, who are in for a ripper of a time when it reaches the stage.”
The Shane & Cathryn Brennan Prize was launched in 2021 to celebrate and reward outstanding achievements in new Australian playwriting and put money back in the pockets of Australia’s hardworking playwrights. The $60,000 prize is made possible by the generous and ongoing philanthropy of Shane and Cathryn Brennan, with the winners in both categories taking home $13,000 in prize money. The highly commended writers in the Stage category will each receive $8,000, and the six shortlisted writers will each receive $3,000.
The winning and shortlisted projects are now available for producers to explore on AWG’s Pathways for Playwrights page, where they join a curated collection of projects by Australia’s best and emerging playwrights.
STAGE CATEGORY
WINNER
1996 by Dasun Abeygoonawardana
A warm, nostalgic coming-of-age about two Australian teenagers, the cricket World Cup, and what it means to share a heritage but not a history.
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Hungry Johannes by Jamie Garner
A fat gay thirtysomething tries to diet his way into romantic success, but instead meets a mediaeval cannibalistic witch. A [fucked-up] fable of famine, fat, and food, inspired by Hansel and Gretel.
Wansolwara by Wendy Mocke
At the Miss Pacific Islands Pageant, five beauty queens are moments away from the crowning and one backhanded compliment away from homicide. With the whole Pacific watching, what breaks first: The queens? The host spiralling towards a mental breakdown? Or the mystery buzzing nobody can switch off?
SHORTLIST
It’s Like That Time Your Sister Handcuffed You To The Stairway And Then Went To School by Josh Billig
It’s Like That Time Your Sister Handcuffed You to the Stairway and then Went to School explores the way that life can trap us in a moment. Across seven scenes, each leaping a decade, the play follows you and your sister through a lifetime of joy and sorrow, your choices and their consequences, all in pursuit of the answer to the question, ‘What does it mean to be here?’
Cecelia by Alexander Duncan
A brother and sister return to their childhood home after their mother’s death, but find themselves hiding from the next door neighbour, Cecelia. She’s somehow included herself in the will, keeps popping over with pies that cause visions, and seems to be making mushrooms to grow inside the house – prompting the siblings’ childhood suspicion that she’s a witch to resurface.
THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES
WINNER
Life is Swift by Ciella Williams
When a portal sucks teenagers Freddie & Edith into Taylor Swift’s Version of the Universe, Freddie must convince her best friend to stay in this increasingly twisted utopia, or lose everything.
SHORTLIST
Lure by Ryanna Clayton
Nerida convinces her friends to borrow (not steal) the school boat to win a blokes-only fishing comp. But the ancient Sirens who lure them out to sea have other ideas.
Girl Running Boy Falling by Kate Gaul
Tiger has her feet on the ground. She’s running through high school, but someone she loves is about to fall.
The Game Changer by Donna Hughes
When a relentless chatterbox, hell bent on making friends, lands in a country town and blunders into the backyard of the most feared recluse, he uncovers close-held secrets that will change everything for his archenemy at school, a talented tomboy footballer, a girl who is on the brink of falling through the cracks.
The Racket by Michael Louis Kennedy
When the administration of St Marcia’s restricts the sale of the highly coveted and sugary lolly “Clouds” to their senior students, in the interest of protecting the junior’s teeth, two industrious Juniors, Francesca and Lucas devise a racket to secretly procure the lollies and sell them to their classmates at a markup. However, as demand grows, more students are recruited to the racket, and as their thirst for power grows, their scheme threatens to unravel.
