The Alfred Fagon Award
1996 - present
The Alfred Fagon Award is an annual event named in honour of Jamaican born actor and playwright Alfred Fagon (1937-1986), celebrating Black excellence in playwriting. The co-founders were Yvonne Brewster, Sheelagh Killeen, Oscar Janes and Roland Rees and Paul Stephenson. Established in 1996 there was initially one award for the best play by a writer of Caribbean descent and in 2006 the remit of the award was extended to include writers of African descent. In 2015 a Roland Rees Bursary was added to the award portfolio, followed in 2021 by the Mustapha Matura Award and mentoring programme named after Trinidadian playwright Mustapha Matura.
Roy Williams was the first playwright to collect the best play award for Starstruck (1997). In 2021, when Hampstead Theatre restaged Alfred Fagon’s play, Death of a Black Man, Williams wrote an article, Who was Alfred Fagon?. The most recent recipient is Inua Ellams for Once Upon A Time in Sokoto (2024).
The Best Play Award has been presented to writers at all stages of their career. Some, like Winsome Pinnock (2018 for Rockets and Blue Lights) and Michael Abbensetts (2004 for The Good Doctor’s Son), have been well established playwrights, others, like Linda Brogan (2001 for The Well) and Michaela Coel (2012 for Chewing Gum Dreams), have been early in their writing career.
The award website lists longlisted and shortlisted plays and is an excellent resource for learning about the vibrancy and diversity of Black British writing.
Credits:
copyright and credits: text by Kate Dorney, images from the Alfred Fagon Award website. Citation: Kate Dorney 2025 'Alfred Fagon Award', Black Theatre History Month project.