Soho Theatre today announces the winner of the 2025 Tony Craze Award – Chris Fung. The highly commended award goes to both Nina Bowers and Kenya Sterling.
The Tony Craze Award (formerly Soho Young Writers’ Award) is named in honour of Soho Theatre’s former Artistic Director and first ever Verity Bargate Award winner. Applications are open each year to writers on Soho Theatre’s Writer’s Lab programme – an entry-level course supporting new writers to create a play over nine months.
The Tony Craze Award ceremony will take place on Friday 20th March at Soho Theatre, with a showcase of script extracts.
Jessica Draper, Head of Creative Engagement at Soho Theatre said: “FRANK and JEN is a tightly written play exploring contemporary ideas of love and capitalism, questioning how far we go to protect ourselves and our family under impossible circumstances. Paint Water is a powerful work about Jamaican-born artist’s model Fanny Eaton and her relationship with Simeon Solomon, reclaiming marginalised historical figures through a modern and accessible lens, whilst Threat of a Storm is an ambitious, form-breaking piece that addresses urgent issues around gender and trans rights through a fractal structure, making for a bold live experience.
“It is a true pleasure to support such exciting emerging talent, and the Tony Craze Award remains committed to championing early-career writers by offering a meaningful platform for development and recognition.”
2025 TONY CRAZE AWARD SHORTLIST:
WINNER:
FRANK and JEN by Chris Fung
HIGHLY COMMENDED:
Paint Water by Nina Bowers
The Threat of a Storm by Kenya Sterling
SHORTLIST:
TwinBond. by Déviniat Adedibu
Goodbye Oestrogen by Jason Barker
Manic Pixie Drag Queen by Jazmin Walters
Also longlisted this year were Isabel Adomakoh Young, Eithne Garricks, Jennifer Leong, Hadsan Mohamud, Em Prendergast, Malini Raman-Middleton, Dan Sinclair, Harry Smith, Noor Sobka, Seema Yasmin and Nilgün Yusuf.
Previous winners include Zahra Dalilah with Anatomy of a Black Rebellion, Laith Elzubaidi with Insane Asylum Seekers, Maryam Garad with Reparations, Somebody Jones with All My Friends Are Dead, Louis Emmitt-Stern with Slippery, Fran Bushe with A Gig for Ghosts, Farah Najib with Dirty Dogs, Adam Narat for Birthright (renamed New Pacific), Phoebe Eclair-Powell with Fury, Charlie Josephine with Bitch Boxer, and Patrick Russell with Antlers.
ABOUT THE SHORTLISTED PLAYS / WRITER BIOGS
FRANK AND JEN – by CHRIS FUNG
After Frank’s dad passes, new couple Frank and Jen are left with a struggling family business, a baby on the way, and a huge HMRC tax bill. Enter business consultant Blake. Tumbling through a kaleidoscopic maze of innovative marketing ideas, biohacking, ballet pigeons, the Spice Girls and misogyny, Frank and Jen find themselves fighting the past, Blake, HMRC and their deeply rooted feelings of inadequacy as they desperately scramble to secure what every couple wants: safety.
There are 7 things you should know about Chris. He is a qualified teacher, an actor with West End credits, holds a PHD with a specialism in combinatorial mathematics, and is an inveterate liar.
PAINT WATER by Nina Bowers
It’s just another day in post emancipation London. The year is 1859, Simeon Solomon is on his way to his painting studio and Fanny Eaton is late for her Charwoman job when… BAM! These two colourful outsiders collide and splatter across each other’s lives. From the glossy heights of the Royal Academy summer Exhibition to the grime of the public toilets in Oxford Circus.Paint Water follows Simeon and Fanny and their messy,queer,interracial friendship through the representation politics of the Victorian Art World. The play explores the triumphs and the failures of allyship, and the exquisite costs and heartbreaks of being seen by another. It’s a funny, sexy, deeply moving exploration of intimacy across differences.
Nina Bowers is an Actor, Theatre Maker, Drag King and Gogo Dancer based in Walthamstow. She is a co-founder of REALFAKE theatre with her writing partner PHILIP ARDITI, REALFAKE’S First show ENGLISH KINGS KILLING FOREIGNERS transferred to Soho Theatre for 5 weeks in Autumn 2025, and is published by Bloomsbury Meuthen.
THE THREAT OF THE STORM by Kenya Sterling
How can you grieve for the loss of your daughter when you’re caught up in the trial of the killer? And what happens when the accused is… her? The piece is an exploration of motherhood, grief, loss, expectation, reconnection, becoming. Life is messy, contradictory, and so is being a mum. But when the personal becomes public, the influence of outside forces is hard to resist. When all the evidence comes to light, can the relationship between mother and child be preserved? Or will the final verdict bury them both?
Kenya Sterling (he/they) is a queer, working class creative and writer hailing from Manchester based in London. Training on European Theatre Arts at Rose Bruford lay the foundations for his multidisciplinary work which spans across, performance, writing, and visual art.
MANIC PIXIE DRAG QUEEN by Jazmin Walters
‘Woman, but in a drag queen way. #justgirlythings’
Manic Pixie Dream Girl meets Indie Guy™ – but what happens when the relationship goes off script? Manic Pixie Drag Queen is a darkly comic, surreal exploration of unmasking, identity, and the roles we perform. Through multimedia chaos, Violet Chachki obsessions, and unapologetic camp, it interrogates the thin line between glitter and grotesque. What are you when you’re not performing for everybody else?
Jazmin Walters (she/they) is an emerging writer whose background lies in performance. Their writing centres on the intersection of queerness and neurodivergence, with a strong focus on identity.
GOODBYE OESTROGEN by Jason Barker
Sam’s hormones are raging yet again. Menopause pulls you back, turns you inwards, makes you regret and Sam’s biggest regret is going on that stupid TV chat show fourteen years ago when he was a “pregnant man”. Sam tries not to read the comments under the clip, but today there’s a new one that simply says, “I know where they live”. The curse has been enacted. Sam must save his family.
Jason Barker is a writer and filmmaker based in the West Country. Having made short films since the 90’s, in 2018 his autobiographical feature documentary A Deal with the Universe was released in cinemas nationwide to critical acclaim.
TWINBOND. by Déviniat Adedibu
Smoldering tensions rise Smoldering tensions rise after Simi interrogates, Kayode on his silence, revelations about their unravelled bond is brought to the surface. After a public humiliation at a Nigerian wedding, twin siblings, Kayode and Simi, address their differences in the matter. Exploring the bond and betrayal between these twins, the disparities between son and daughters raised in an African household and asks whether there are times complicity is necessary to get by. Through a journey to self-destruction and need for redemption beneath it all, we take a deep dive into the pressures of culture & tradition, gender comparison, corporate politics and a generation’s responsibilities in the adulthood of today.
Déviniat (Dee-vin-yah) is an actor, writer and multi-disciplinary artist from North London. She graduated from East 15 Acting School in 2020 and she’s all about creating thought-provoking stories and work that challenges societal issues.
For further information, interviews, images: press@sohotheatre.com