SANCTUARY to Make Edinburgh Festival Fringe Debut Following Leodis Prize Win
The Leodis Prize-winning play explores queer memory and belonging, inspired by real events in a Suffolk village.
SANCTUARY, the debut play by Jacob Sparrow and winner of the inaugural Leodis Prize, will premiere at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Inspired by real events surrounding plans for an AIDS hospice in a Suffolk village during the 1990s, the drama explores memory, belonging, and survival. Sparrow was a member of the Royal Court's Emerging Writers Group in 2025.
SANCTUARY, a new play by Jacob Sparrow, will make its Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut after winning the inaugural Leodis Prize, a new award established to identify and support previously unrepresented playwrights.
The play centers on plans to establish an AIDS hospice and the local resistance that followed. The story follows a man who arrives before the hospice opens and develops unexpected relationships within the community, while years later confronting memories he has long suppressed.
Set primarily within a single house, SANCTUARY moves between past and present, using a fluid structure that allows memories and lived experiences to coexist. Through its exploration of loneliness, mortality, shame, and survival, the play examines how people create meaning and connection in difficult circumstances.
As the protagonist revisits the past, the drama considers the legacy of the AIDS crisis, the absence of established models for queer lives across generations, and the ways communities respond to fear and change. At the same time, the play highlights moments of care, humor, and resilience.
“I am thrilled and amazed to have won the inaugural Leodis Prize and am hugely grateful to Leodis and the judges for giving me this opportunity and seeing potential in Sanctuary,” said Sparrow. “This is my first play and I wanted to write something that finds hope in queer voices whilst acknowledging the legacy of our history, and that humanity can still be found in unexpected places even when it feels as though the world is against us.”
Daniel Hinchliffe, Managing Director of Leodis Talent and founder of the award, said, “The shortlisted plays were all brilliant, and the judging panel and I loved reading them. Each had its own distinctive voice, and we've discovered some wonderful writers. But there was one play that stood out for us, and that play is Sanctuary by first-time writer Jacob Sparrow.”
Sparrow was a member of the Royal Court's Emerging Writers Group in 2025. SANCTUARY marks his first full-length play and represents the first Leodis Prize-winning production to be presented at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Through its focus on memory, history, and belonging, SANCTUARY examines what safety means, who is granted it, and how storytelling can preserve lives and experiences that might otherwise be forgotten.
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