Kitchen sink drama scoops award

A PLAYWRIGHT has won one of the most prestigious awards in British theatre with his critically-acclaimed play set in an East Coast town.

Tom Wells, the Associate Playwright for Hull Truck Theatre, scooped The George Devine Award 2012 for his play, The Kitchen Sink.

The annual award given for new writing in theatre is open to any playwright in the UK for an original stage play and was established in 1966 as a memorial to George Devine, the founding Artistic Director of The Royal Court Theatre.

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Previous winners include Hull’s Richard Bean, Edward Bond and Mike Leigh.

The comedy about the big dreams and small changes of one family is set in Withernsea, East Yorkshire - near the village of Kilnsea, where Tom lived and grew up. It was first performed at the Bush Theatre in London, receiving rave reviews from the critics, helping Mr Wells to be named Most Promising Playwright at the 2011 Critics Circle Theatre Awards.

Warmly recommending it, one critic wrote that it cut “surprisingly deep (and was) blessed with both tenderness and a beautiful sense of tentative hope.”

Hull Truck will produce the regional premiere this autumn.

As part of his role, Mr Wells, who is also Associate Playwright at the Bush Theatre, will help to develop new plays by local writing talents as well bringing his own work to the theatre.

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Andrew Smaje, Chief Executive at Hull Truck Theatre, said: “We are delighted for Tom. Winning The George Devine Award is a fantastic achievement – it’s probably the most prestigious award for a playwright in British Theatre. He is undoubtedly one of the most exciting playwrights of his generation.

“The fact that Tom is Hull born and bred makes working with him all the more special - he writes with a voice which is unmistakably from here - and proud of it.”