Queensland Premier’s Drama Award 2020-2021 Winner Confirmed

Steve Pirie Announced as Winner with 'Return to the Dirt'

In some exciting news from Queensland Theatre, after shortlisting three young playwrights in November 2019, the recipient of the 2020-2021 Queensland Premier’s Drama Award has been announced.

Queensland Premier's Drama Award 2020-2021 Winner Confirmed 1
Steve Pirie (Image by Glenn Hunt)

After receiving over 220 entries, it has been confirmed that Brisbane writer Steve Pirie has been confirmed the winner with their piece ‘Return to the Dirt. This is described the Queensland Theatre as “a powerful — and gently humorous — meditation on what it means to die in the 21st century and what a final act of love can do for our healing”. With Pirie’s work confirmed as the recipient, work will be underway to take it into a professional production as part of Queensland Theatre’s 2021 Season. Pirie’s was selected ahead of fellow finalists Anna Loren for Comfort and Maddie Nixon for her work Binnavale.

Return to the Dirt introduces you to Steve, a struggling artist who — after a long stint of unemployment —finds work as a funeral director. The play, using Gen-Y wit and pop-culture homage, takes you through the realms of the dead and behind the closed doors of the Australian funeral industry. Return to the Dirt is a celebration of finding your place in the world, the power of personal redemption and humility at the end of all things.

Queensland Premier's Drama Award 2020-2021 Winner Confirmed 2
Queensland Theatre Artistic Director Lee Lewis and QPDA Winner Steve Pirie

Steve Pirie’s play Return to the Dirt is a revelation. It is one of the best new Australian plays I have read in the last five years. He has done what all great writers do… bravely transform personal experience into story so that we are willing to imagine into the scariest of places.

This play is emotionally rich, humane, startlingly funny, spiritually sophisticated and deeply honest. In these strange and difficult times this is the kind of writing we need to inspire us. I have not been so deeply moved by a play in years.

Our playwrights are our national treasures and great stories are hived in every corner of this great country – this is a story set in Toowoomba which will speak to the world about how we, as humans, value a life.  I can’t wait to share it with our audience on the Queensland Theatre stage next year.

The QPDA is the largest playwriting award in the country. The significance of guaranteeing a production to the winning play cannot be overstated. For every playwright in the country, the QPDA offers a career-changing opportunity. Working with the Queensland Government to shine a huge light on the extraordinary writing talent we have in this country is both inspiring and exciting.

Lee Lewis – Artistic Director of Queensland Theatre

The Queensland Premier’s Drama Award was first held in 2002, and over the years has had 31 professional productions created from it. Previous winning works include The Holidays by David Megarrity (2018–19), Rice by Michele Lee (2016–17), Oedipus Doesn’t Live Here Anymore by Daniel Evans (2014–15), Trollop by Maxine Mellor (2012–13) and Fractions by Marcel Dorney (2010–11).

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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