THE SILVER GULL PLAY AWARD 2025 

AND THE WINNER IS…

We’re thrilled to announce that the winner of The Silver Gull Play Award for 2025 is Steven Vidler for The Vanya Variations.

The Silver Gull Play Award is a competition open to NSW and ACT-based writers over the age of 18 for an unpublished and unproduced original play of 60 minutes or more duration that speaks to New Theatre’s ethos of ‘Plays With a Purpose’.

This year we received a record number of entries, displaying a wide variety of subject matter, and the judges praised the quality and originality of the writing. Five plays which the judges considered outstanding were shortlisted: The Crypt Dialogues by Peter Fleming; Lavender Sky by Jack Kearney; First, Do No Harm by Grace Malouf; Brief Candle by Simon Thomson; and the winner The Vanya Variations by Steven Vidler.
In addition, two plays were Highly Commended: Hiding Lights in Dark Places by Meg McDonald, and The Bureau of Imagined Genealogy by Zoe Hogan.

On Monday 13 October, in front of an enthusiastic audience, excerpts from the six shortlisted plays were presented by actors Matt Abotomey, Kyra Belford-Thomas, Kate Bookallil, Alex Bryant-Smith, Sonya Kerr, under the direction of Joseph Tanti.

Steven Vidler received a prize of $5000 and the other shortlisted writers received $500 each, thanks to the generous sponsorship of Joy Minter, who has supported The Silver Gull Play Award since its inception in 2015. 

ABOUT THE WINNING PLAY

The Vanya Variations is a bold and playful theatrical exploration of the themes, characters and ideas of Chekhov’s iconic play of thwarted ambition, Uncle Vanya. It tumbles through a series of four socially and historically diverse iterations, with a gender and role switching cast, and with Anton Chekhov hovering and commenting from the sidelines.

It explores what happens when you hitch your life to someone else’s moonshot… and they miss…

The tragi-comic theme at the core of Chekhov’s Vanya is that each of us invests heavily in deriving meaning for our life from an ambitious dream – a futile rebellion against our finite existence. When this Quixotic endeavour fails, our continued pursuit of it serves only to distract us from finding meaning through connecting with others.

The Vanya Variations is a vibrant and distinctive new play that revels in its theatricality, explicitly drawing historical and cultural parallels that illuminate our present in a provocative, memorable experience that is relevant, entertaining and accessible.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

“Intense, rich, amazing power, humour and, in the final iteration, a lightning strike of satire illuminating and blasting our contemporary world. This is dazzling work in breadth and depth. It deserves a world stage.”

ABOUT THE WRITER

Steve is an award-winning actor, writer and director. His debut feature film as director, Blackrock, premiered at Sundance and was nominated for 5 AFI Awards including Best Film. His mini-series A Difficult Woman, co-created with Nicholas Hammond for the ABC, won the Silver World Medal for best mini-series at the New York Festivals. His feature film Standing Up for Sunny premiered at Sydney Film Festival and won the 2020 AACTA Award for Best Indie Film. Steve also holds a research PhD from Macquarie University exploring the cognitive science of audience engagement with character. He has taught Screenwriting at AFTRS and served as a Project Officer and Assessor for Screen NSW and Screen Australia. His play Love Muscle was performed by the NIDA Company. The Vanya Variation is his second full-length play and the result of a decades-long love affair with the works of Anton Chekhov.

SUBMISSIONS FOR NEXT YEAR’S SILVER GULL PLAY AWARD WILL OPEN IN APRIL 2026

Previous winners and finalists of The Silver Gull Play Award:

2024
6069 and Counting by James Balian and Roger Vickery
Fortress by  Erica J. Brennan
Noah’s Arkby Campion Decent
Rehearsing Julie by Noel Hodda
Roslyn Gardens by David McLaughlin
Macaroni and Dead Things by Miranda Michalowski – winner

2023
Next To Godliness by Alastair Brown – winner
Chicken In A Biscuit by Mary Rachel Brown and Jamie Oxenbould
Burning by Christopher Bryant
The Mews by Joanna Erskine
The Dragonfly by Simon Thomson

2022
Inside Out by Christopher Bryant
Fighting by Xavier Coy – winner
God in Space by Jeanette Cronin
Miriam by James Elazzi

2021
Off The Record by Chris Aronsten
Sanctuary by Margaret Davis
Cloudsurfing by John AD Fraser
The Scammer by Wendy Lewis
Fitson and Dan by Mark O’Flynn
The Other End of The Afternoon by Bokkie Robertson – winner

2020
Victim by Jeanette Cronin
God’s Gruesome Shadow on The Wall by Kian Farzam
The Scream by Justin Fleming
Gods and Little Fishes by Jamie Oxenbould and Richard Sydenham – winner
The Park by Simon Thomson

2019
I Damo by Pauline Bleach
The Deal by Kel Vance
Breathless by Deborah Mulhall
Son of Byblos by James Elazzi
Field of Vision by Joanna Erskine – winner

2018
Disinhibition by Christopher Bryant
Alabaster Burning by John AD Fraser
People Inside Me by Katie Pollock
Superheroes by Mark Rogers
Lions and Tigers and Bears by Phillip James Rouse – winner

2017
The Bees Are All Dead by Kit Brookman
Dead Wen by Elias Jamieson Brown
For Unknown Reasons by Zoe Cooper – winner
A Spy in the House of Love by Zoe Hogan
Human Activity by Katie Pollock
The Blackbird and the Whale by Alison Rooke

2016
People Will Think You Don’t Love Me by Joanna Erskine – winner
A Matter of Life and Death by John AD Fraser
The Ink Trail by Louis Klee
This, This Is Mine by Duncan Ragg
I sat and waited but you were gone too long by Olivia Satchell

2015
Between the Streetlight and the Moon by Melita Rowston
Furthest West by Michael Collins
The Block Universe (Or So It Goes) by Sam O’Sullivan
The Last Executioner by Mark Swivel
TickTickBoom by Melissa Lee Speyer – winner