Benedict Lombe, 30, a British Congolese playwright based in London is the winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She received the award on Monday April 11at at Shakespeare’s Globe in London for his first play “Lava,” a one-woman memoir-monologue that deals with Black identity and displacement.
Benedict Lombe won this award against 9 other candidates. It’s first time in the 44-year history of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize that the honor has gone to the writer of a debut play. “For my Congolese people, my African people, my Black people, who walked so we could run. This moment is for us”, said Benedict Lombe on Twitter.
The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize is the oldest and largest playwriting prize honoring women+ writing for the English-speaking theatre. Established in 1978, the Prize is given annually to recognize women who have written works of outstanding quality for the English-speaking theatre. The Prize is administered in Houston, London and New York by a board of directors who choose six Judges each year, three from each side of the Atlantic.
The Prize currently awards $70,000 annually to the Finalists:Winner- $25,000, Special Commendation-$10,000, and other Finalists- $5,000. Finalists are the top ten plays. In addition, the Winner receives a signed and numbered Willem de Kooning print made especially for the award. The Special Commendation is given at the discretion of the Judges.
“Lava” tells the story of a young woman trying to renew her British passport, which leads her to retrace her journey, recall childhood memories and engage in a process of personal reflection. “When a woman receives an unexpected letter from the British Passport Office, she is forced to confront an old mystery: why does her South African passport not carry her first name? Playful and lyrical, moving from Mobutu’s Congo to post-Apartheid South Africa, Ireland and England, this is a story about unravelling the patterns of chaos across history – questioning nationhood, narratives, and the process of naming the unnameable”.
Benedict Lombe is a Kinshasa-born British Congolese writer and theatre-maker based in London. She is interested in wholly reclaiming diasporic stories; without compromise, without apology, and doing it with flair, humour and heart.
Lava is her debut play. It received its world premiere on the main stage of London’s Bush Theatre in 2021 to critical acclaim, in a production starring Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo and directed by Anthony Simpson-Pike. She has won a Black British Theatre Award and was nominated for the Alfred Fagon Award for Best New Play of the Year. She is on attachment with the National Theatre Studio, has been selected to join BBC Drama Room, and is working on new theatre commissions. She has also previously completed attachments with the Bush Theatre and Theatre503. She is currently working with production companies to develop original film and TV projects.
