Elizabeth Kuti's play The Sugar Wife has been named as a co-winner of this year's Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. The Sugar Wife shares the prize with Amelia Bullmore's Mammals which was produced by the Bush Theatre, London in 2005.

Awarded annually for an outstanding new English language play by a woman, the prize was presented at a private reception Friday night in London. Customarily, the Blackburn involves a top cash prize of $10,000 and a special commendation of $2,000. With co-winners, each will receive $6,000 and a specially commissioned, signed de Kooning lithograph.

The Sugar Wife, Kuti's third play, was originally presented by Rough Magic at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin in March 2005 before touring to the London's Soho Theatre earlier this year.

The other nine finalists (each receiving $1,000) were: Kay Adshead (U.K.), for Bites; April De Angelis (U.K.), for Wild East; Bathsheba Doran (U.S.), for Living Room in Africa; Melissa James Gibson (U.S.), for Current Nobody; Debbie Tucker Green (U.K.), for Stoning Mary; Linda Marshall Griffiths (U.K), for Pomegranate; Beth Henley (U.S.), for Ridiculous Fraud; Oni Faida Lampley (U.S.), for Tough Titty; and Kira Obolensky (U.S.), for Modern House.

This year's finalists were chosen from a field of over 90 entries.

Posted on: 27/2/2006