The news comes following an extensive judging process.
It has been announced that Venison by Huw Turnbull has been selected as the winner of the inaugural Ambassador PEEL Playwriting Challenge 2025.
Venison is a black comedy farce that tells the story of Dan, Bill and Max arriving at a dinner party, expecting to see their friend Jane. Instead, they are met with her strange boyfriend Jerry and the promise of Venison on the menu. As the temperature rises in the kitchen, the painfully awkward dinner party soon turns into a gripping murder mystery, questioning the ethicality of our modern-day obsession with true crime as entertainment.
The award has been created to chart a course for new playwrights and offers a unique platform for budding talent to make waves in the world of theatre.
Talking about the news, Judge Dr Jessica Lazar comments: “There are so few opportunities for writers to have their work staged; these are even rarer for plays with larger casts. The Ambassador PEEL prize-winner will be staged in a 800-seat theatre and will be seen by in excess of 20,000 people. It was a huge privilege to read and judge the plays. The shortlist was varied and strong, and the finalists are extraordinary. The Splintered Globe is an ambitious Queer multi-rolling homage to Restoration comedy, and Venison is a blackly comic murder mystery farce that explores the risks of indulging in crime as entertainment. Sadly with competitions like this there can only be one winner, but all of these plays deserve a future life. Congratulations to everyone who entered, to our brilliant runner up, and most importantly our amazing winner.”
The play will now be produced as part of the Theatre@Sea programme which is performed on Ambassador’s ships Ambience, Renaissance and Ambition and will be staged onboard Ambition in 2026. The winner will receive a cash prize of £6,000 and a free cruise for two in 2026. The award is the first of its kind to take place on a cruise ship.
The Ambassador PEEL Playwriting Challenge 2025 was judged by a distinguished panel of
prominent figures from theatre, writing and cruise entertainment. They were award-winning director Dr Jessica Lazar (Sap, The Gift); Dr Alison Norrington, a respected writer and producer with over 25 years’ experience; winner of the 2022 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting Nathan Queely Dennis (Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz); and Susannah Daley, founder of PEEL Entertainment and a BBC award-winning playwright herself.
The 2025 shortlisted playwrights were Tony Pipes (The Understudy), Michael Davies (The Seagull Has Landed), Clare Shaw (Mr Sisyphus), Rhys Bevan (The Early Years), James
Rushbrooke (Fur and Loathing / Claws for Concern), Mary Portalska (Nick of Time), Keiran Lines (Equilibrium), Brian Murray (The Odyssey (re-Told)), and Claudia Feilding (Tea Leaves).