Plays join shortlist for prestigious international award honouring scripts by female, transgender and non-binary playwrights

Plays submitted by the National Theatre, the Almeida and the Royal Shakespeare Company are among the finalists for this year’s Susan Smith Blackburn prize for female, transgender and non-binary playwrights.

The international playwriting award, now in its 47th year, has a shortlist of nine scripts. The National’s submission is Inter Alia, about a judge whose son is accused of rape. The play will be staged this summer in the Lyttelton theatre, starring Rosamund Pike in the lead role. It is written by Australian playwright Suzie Miller, who had a hit with her previous legal drama, Prima Facie, starring Jodie Comer.