Troubles-rooted play Sapling wins Women’s prize for playwriting

Sapling, a play rooted in Troubles-era Belfast that examines what happens when trauma is left to fester, has won the Women’s prize for playwriting 2025. Judges praised the unflinching and moving writing of Georgina Duncan, a working-class playwright from Lancashire.

"Sapling is the rare kind of play that producers dream of discovering and audiences yearn to watch: gripping, fearless, and profoundly moving. Georgie’s writing is full of heart and vivid energy, matching its extraordinary craft in every scene," said Ellie Keel, the prize’s founder director.

The play centres on the murder of Conor Flynn by another child during the final years of the Troubles and follows his brother Gerry when he is 16, ten years later. A single day upends Gerry’s tenuous stability: his brother’s memorial garden is destroyed, the killer is released from prison, and the arrival of a charismatic stranger, Ryan, forces Gerry to confront whether Ryan is the solution to his problems or the reason they exist.

United Kingdom, Belfast, Lancashire

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