Bold. Visionary. New.
The prestigious Griffin Award is one of Australia’s premier playwriting competitions.
Each year hundreds of playwrights enter to vie for the award and join the ranks of award alumni Angus Cerini, Debra Oswald and Suzie Miller whose win set Prima Facie on its remarkable trajectory to the West End and Broadway.
Join us for a Keynote from leading Australian playwright Leah Purcell (Black Chicks Talking, The Drover’s Wife) alongside readings from three exceptional award finalists. The winner of the 28th Griffin Award will receive a full commission thanks to the generosity of the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.
The Griffin Award is generously supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.
Date & Time
Wednesday 21 May, 6.30pm – 7.45pm
Venue
Track 12, Carriageworks
Presented in partnership with Sydney Writers’ Festival
2025 Griffin Award Keynote Pricing
| Full | $30 |
| Concession | $20 |
Leah Purcell
Leah Purcell is one of Australia’s most admired and leading creatives. She has starred in some of Australia’s most iconic films, TV and theatre such as Lantana and The Proposition, Police Rescue and Wentworth, Stuff Happens and The Marriage of Figaro. Leah has also starred in, created, written, produced and directed some of our finest works that make up the First Nations Canon such as Box the Pony, Bran Nue Dae, Black Chicks Talking, Don’t Take Your Love to Town, The Story of the Miracles at Cookie’s Table, Is That You Ruthie?, The Drover’s Wife play and The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson film. Her latest drama High Country (Foxtel Sony TV USA/Curio Pictures) recently screened on BBC One in the UK where it won its opening night primetime slot with a 6M plus viewing audience. She was nominated for a 2024 LOGIE Award for “Best Support Lead in a TV Drama” for her outstanding work opposite Sigourney Weaver in The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (Amazon Prime/Made Up Stories) and has also been nominated for a 2025 AACTA Award for “Best Lead Actress in a TV Drama” for High Country. She received an Order Of Australia in 2022 for her outstanding work in the Arts, Women and Youth especially in the First Nations space. At present, outside of her acting accolades and in her capacity as a writer/director/producer she is developing and pitching through her company Oombarra Productions premium series, film, and publishing projects such as I am Molly, Koa Kid, Is That You Ruthie? Promised and Moxie Girls. Leah Purcell is a proud Kuwa – Gunggari – Wakka Wakka Murri woman.
It is with utmost excitement that we announce the three finalists and their plays for the 2025 Griffin Award. Congratulations to these talented creatives—their plays were identified as innovative and exciting examples of new Australian playwriting.
This year’s Griffin Award winner will be announced at a ceremony on Wednesday 21 May.
The Suppostabys by Chenturan Aran
Chenturan Aran is a Melbourne-based playwright, journalist, and screenwriter of Sri Lankan Tamil heritage. His critically acclaimed play Cut Chilli premiered at the Old Fitz in 2024. His sharp, irreverent work sits at the crossroads of diaspora, digital noise and spiritual yearning—mapping the comic and tragic ways we try to remake ourselves.
About The Suppostabys
A disillusioned clone and her original strike a deal to roleplay as mother and daughter, uncovering buried traumas, cultural dislocation, and the fragile nature of forgiveness.
Raven by Van Badham
Van Badham is a writer based in the Central Highlands of Victoria. Her plays include The Bull, the Moon and the Coronet of Stars for Griffin Theatre Company, The Bloody Chamber for Malthouse Theatre, Banging Denmark and A Fool in Love for Sydney Theatre Company, Animal Farm for Black Swan State Theatre Company, Werewolf for Arts Centre Melbourne, and the musical The Questions (with Richard Wise) for State Theatre Company South Australia. She is a columnist for The Guardian and also writes for The New York Times. Originally from Sydney, she attended Port Hacking High School, Miranda, and holds a BA/BCA from the University of Wollongong and an MA from the Victorian College of the Arts.
About Raven
Raven is a horror play. It mashes ghost stories into a domestic thriller to explore dark and volatile dysfunction in an “aspirational” suburban nuclear family in Sydney.
Snappy by Michele Lee
Michele Lee is a multiple award-winning Hmong-Australian writer for stage, screen, audio and live art. Across her work, she aims to centre the stories of those historically on the margins—women, people of colour, poor people and working-class people, and people from my community, the Hmong. Selected theatre credits include Security (Darebin Speakeasy, 2022); Rice (East West Theatre, Greece, 2025; Actors’ Touring Company, UK, 2022, 2021; Queensland Theatre, Griffin Theatre Company and HotHouse Theatre, 2017) and Going Down (Sydney Theatre Company and Malthouse Theatre, 2018). Michele is under commission from Melbourne Theatre Company and her latest work, These Other Things, premieres in May 2025, commissioned and presented by RMIT Culture. She was a 2022-2023 Sidney Myer Creative Fellow.
About Snappy
Bea’s in Melbourne. In a bar. There’s a stranger. Hot stranger. Younger than her. Bea gulps, f*ck it, approaches. Buy. Me. A. Drink. And he does. Snappy is a play about desire and big mistakes.
The Griffin Award is generously supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.
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