| Italic Title: | The Observer Plays |
| Author: | Various |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | theatre |
| Publisher: | Faber |
| Pub Date: | 1958 |
| Pages: | 475 |
The Observer Plays is a 1958 collection of seven plays edited by Kenneth Tynan. The plays were commended in the famous 1957 playwriting competition organised by Tynan when at the Observer newspaper.[1]
The plays were:
In 1956 the London Observer newspaper held a competition for the best new stage play with a prize of 500 pounds. The competition was held in part to respond to allegations there were no new exciting plays in British theatre, and was run by Kenneth Tynan, the newspaper's drama critic. There were over 2,000 entries. According to Tynan, the submitted plays fell into six main groups: the H bomb, the Hungarian Uprising, Australia, the "colour problem", "angry young men" and poetry. The competition's support of Australian playwriting was notable at a time when very few Australian written plays were professionally produced on stage.
The judges were Alec Guinness, Peter Ustinov, Peter Hall, and Michael Barry.[2]
The winner of the competition (prize £500) was Moon on a Rainbow Shawl by Errol John.[3] Second prize (£200) went to Sit on the Earth by Gurney Campbell and Daphne Athas.
Third prize (£100 each) went to:
Honourable mentions (£50 each):
Other plays that made the final twenty five finalists included: