Review: Supporting The Creation And Development Of Australian Plays The 2017 Annual GRIFFIN AWARD Was Awarded To David Finnigan for KILL CLIMATE DENIERS.

Sunday 4th June 2017, 4pm, SBW Stables Kings Cross

In it's 20th year, the GRIFFIN AWARD continues Griffin Theatre Company's commitment to producing Australian plays and supporting the creation of new Australian work as it seeks to recognise "an outstanding play or performance text that displays an authentic, inventive and contemporary Australian voice". The GRIFFIN AWARD is supported by Copyright Agency Limited, a not for profit organisation that "provides simple licensing solutions to allow people to use copyright protected words and images".

The ever exuberant Lee Lewis, Artistic Director and CEO of Griffin Theatre Company, welcomed guests and provided an insight into the incredible task of taking the 96 entries and finding a shortlist of 5 plays that would make up the finalists who the audience would hear an excerpt from before the winner was announced. The results from the anonymous reads by a panel of artists was compiled, with each play read at least twice, a third reader providing their assessment if the first two had a conflicting opinion, before the shortlist was submitted to the judging panel of industry leaders. The winner of the GRIFFIN AWARD will receive a $10,000 prize and the other four finalists will receive a $1,000 prize.

Ben Winspear hosted the readings of excerpts from the five finalists with the assistance of actors Akos Armont, Anna Houston, Chantelle Jamieson, Rebecca Massey and Contessa Treffone.

The finalists for 2017 were

Kit Brookman for The Bees Are All Dead
Ang Collins for Blueberry Play
David Finnigan for Kill Climate Deniers
Emme Hoy for Extinction of the Learned Response
Brooke Robinson for Good Cook. Friendly. Clean.

The works ranged from monologues, purely female voices, ensemble work and more complex plots requiring character doubling, covering subjects of climate change and the environment, the unaffordability of the Sydney property market, science and social experiments, cancer and the challenges of being a teenage girl.

The 2017 GRIFFIN AWARD was presented in absentia to David Finnigan for KILL CLIMATE DENIERS. The work ,that was also subject to controversy when it received government funding in 2014, is a satirical look at politics as a play within a play where eco-terrorists have taken control of Parliament House in Canberra, Finnigan's home town, whilst a Fleetwood Mac Concert is taking place and the technologically illiterate Environment Minister and her aide have to save the day.

BWW Australia congratulates David Finnigan and the other finalists and looks forward to seeing more great Australian plays created and produced at Griffin Theatre