Ambassador Cruise Line And PEEL Entertainment Group Unveil Winner of Playwriting Challenge

Ambassador Cruise Line and PEEL Entertainment Group have announced the winner of the  Ambassador PEEL Playwriting Challenge 2025. After an extensive judging process, Venison by  Huw Turnbull has been selected for this exciting new award. At a time when opportunities for emerging writing talent are becoming increasingly scarce, this innovative initiative has been  created to recognise and showcase gifted playwrights. 

Venison is a black comedy farce that tells the story of Dan, Bill and Max arriving at a dinner  party, expecting to see their friend Jane. Instead, they are met with her strange boyfriend Jerry and the promise of Venison on the menu. As the temperature rises in the kitchen, the painfully  awkward dinner party soon turns into a gripping murder mystery, questioning the ethicality of our modern-day obsession with true crime as entertainment. 

Designed to chart a course for new playwrights, the challenge has offered a unique platform for  budding talent to make waves in the world of theatre. With an overwhelming number of  fantastic submissions, the judges were inspired by the intelligent writing and innovative  storytelling.  

Judge Dr Jessica Lazar comments, There are so few opportunities for writers to have their work  staged; these are even rarer for plays with larger casts. The Ambassador PEEL prize-winner will  be staged in a 800-seat theatre and will be seen by in excess of 20,000 people. It was a huge  privilege to read and judge the plays. The shortlist was varied and strong, and the finalists are  extraordinary. The Splintered Globe is an ambitious Queer multi-rolling homage to Restoration  comedy, and Venison is a blackly comic murder mystery farce that explores the risks of indulging  in crime as entertainment. Sadly with competitions like this there can only be one winner, but all  of these plays deserve a future life. Congratulations to everyone who entered, to our brilliant  runner up, and most importantly our amazing winner. 

The play will now be produced as part of the Theatre@Sea programme which is performed on  Ambassador's ships Ambience, Renaissance and Ambition and will be staged onboard Ambition  in 2026. The winner will receive a cash prize of £6,000 and a free cruise for two in 2026. The  award is the first of its kind to take place on a cruise ship. 

Running for over 25 years, the last three being with Ambassador Cruise Line, Theatre@Sea has  staged a wide range of productions onboard Ambassador ships to great acclaim, with a whole  host of genres ranging from thrillers and dramas to comedies, and modern adaptations of  classics. The onboard acting troupes are among the few existing repertory companies operating  out of the UK. 

The Ambassador PEEL Playwriting Challenge 2025 was judged by a distinguished panel of  prominent figures from theatre, writing and cruise entertainment. They were award-winning  director Dr Jessica Lazar (Sap, The Gift); Dr Alison Norrington, a respected writer and producer  with over 25 years' experience; winner of the 2022 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting Nathan  Queely Dennis (Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz); and Susannah Daley, founder of PEEL  Entertainment and a BBC award-winning playwright herself. 

The 2025 shortlisted playwrights were Tony Pipes (The Understudy), Michael Davies (The  Seagull Has Landed), Clare Shaw (Mr Sisyphus), Rhys Bevan (The Early Years), James  Rushbrooke (Fur and Loathing / Claws for Concern), Mary Portalska (Nick of Time), Keiran Lines (Equilibrium), Brian Murray (The Odyssey (re-Told)), and Claudia Feilding (Tea Leaves). 

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