Ambassador Cruise Line and PEEL Entertainment Group have announced the finalists for the Ambassador PEEL Playwriting Challenge 2025. Following an extensive judging process, Venisonby Huw Turnbull and The Splintered Globeby Bryan Moriarty have been shortlisted for this exciting new award. With opportunities for emerging writing talent ebbing away, this exciting and innovative award has been created to celebrate and showcase gifted playwrights.
Designed to chart a course for new playwrights, the challenge has offered a unique platform for budding talent to make waves in the world of theatre. With an overwhelming number of fantastic submissions, the judges were inspired by the intelligent writing and innovative storytelling.
The Splintered Globe
“A wildly original, high-concept piece. The Restoration setting, minimal cast playing 20+ characters, and bold staging demands make this play distinct, chocolate-box clever and theatrically inventive. The tonal variety – from biting satire to moments of genuine vulnerability – works in its favour,”. Judge Dr Alison Norrington
“Brian Moriaty’s writing has such life, energy, and rhythm. It is clear, consistent, natural, witty and elegant. Characters have depth, clarity, and distinctiveness, it is a strong and satisfying play with emotional and thematic depth and impact”. Judge Dr Jessica Lazar Ford
Venison
“Contemporary and not in an alienating way, every age group can enjoy the story. It falls into the potentially absurd and we get on board with a lovely rug pull at the end. From beginning to end Huw Turnball has created a joyous flow and momentum that builds perfectly. An audience will love that this has great balance in its lightness and substance but also appreciate the undercurrent theme of how we judge people and then how our perception can change in an instance of herd mentality”. Judge Nathan Queeley Dennis
“Operating primarily as a dark comedy, the play’s emotional impact comes through its twisted take on domestic life, control, and consumption. The thematic metaphor – around possession, identity, or perhaps guilt – is left ambiguous, which may divide, however it is though provoking . The ending delivers an emotional jolt in its absurdity, which may linger with an audience more for its shock factor than catharsis. The premise is fresh, confidently executed, and distinctive in its blend of horror, farce, and domestic satire. The writing, structure, and title all speak to a strong authorial voice that suggests confidence in both genre-bending and theatricality.” Judge Dr Alison Norrington
About the Final:
Judge and Ambassador Guest Experience Officer Bob McGowan explains that “Ambassador Cruise Line launching a new national playwrighting competition onboard a ship has been hailed as a strong innovative move for the cruise industry. We were determined to work together with our partners PEEL Entertainment to create a path for new and exciting writers to get their work seen onboard in the very successful ‘Theatre@Sea’ programme that we know our guests value very highly as part of their holiday adventures”.
Susannah Daley – Chair of Judges, says “We had 260 entrants for our Ambassador PEEL playwrighting challenge, which we were over the moon with especially for a new first-year writing competition. Getting to a shortlist of 11 was tough for the readers and we were very luckily to be able to offer opportunities for the shortlisted plays to have an extract reading on board in the same theatre that the winning play will be performed in. The writers all commented on how special and useful it had been to see the actors bring their work to life in the regional readings held around UK ports on the ship. We are so excited about our two finalists, they are two exceptionally talented writers. This whole experience has delivered work beyond our expectations and no matter who wins on the day we have now established a new network of innovative writers we would be delighted to work with in the future alongside our established writing, directing and producing team.”
The incredible new award offers a whole new route for both experienced writers and unproduced playwrights to submit their work. The winner will be announced at a ceremony on December 5th, in which both finalists will have readings performed by an incredible cast of actors, directed by Dr Chris Ford.
The winning play will be produced as part of the Theatre@Sea programme which is performed on Ambassador’s ships Ambience, Renaissance and Ambition and staged onboard Ambition in 2026, with the winner receiving 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.
Running for over 25 years, the last three being with Ambassador Cruise Line, Theatre@Sea has staged a wide range of productions onboard Ambassador ships to great acclaim, with a whole host of genres ranging from thrillers and dramas to comedies, and modern adaptations of classics. The onboard acting troupes are among the few existing repertory companies operating out of the UK.
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 included playwrights 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).
The challenge also benefitted from experienced readers including theatre veteran Dr Chris Ford, writer and director James Stone, and producer Martin Pearson, all of whom bring decades of industry insight. Kerry Daley, creative lead of Theatre@Sea, will oversee production of the winning play and appoint a director and production team to help bring the winning writer’s vision to life.
This post was last modified on November 27, 2025 10:44 am