The Mark Ravenhill Award is part of the project of the Centre for Contemporary Drama by the LETÍ Theatre, which started back in 2010. The award for the best production of a contemporary play is the acknowledgment of Czech authors’ undertakings in staging contemporary drama. A contemporary play is a play that was written within ten years before the respective award ceremony. The award-winning performance is chosen based on the consensus of the Board of the Mark Ravenhill Award, which pays attention to the symbiosis of a high-quality play and the quality of the production. The board also monitors outputs of authorial or collective production, with the decisive points of the final text and its transferability outside the context of the specific production and poetics of the theatre it was written for.

The jury of eight experts was to choose from more than one hundred productions staged in 2023 and nominated seven of them for the finals. Apart from Autorka, the winning production from the South Bohemian Theatre in České Budějovice, the shortlist included Cherry Man at the National Theatre in Prague, Trojan Women and Prima Facie at the Švanda Theatre, Hanzelkazikmund (Hic Sunt Leones) at the Drama Studio in Ústí nad Labem, The Best Man for Thirteen Times at the Slovácko Theatre in Uherské Hradiště, and The Film Critic’s Wife at the Pod Palmovkou Theatre in Prague.

Sylvie Vůjtková, a member of the jury and programmer of the Dream Factory Ostrava festival comments on the selection of the winning production: “The Writer written by Scottish playwright Ella Hickson is an extremely provocative and multi-layered play, dealing with the issues of gender inequality, as well as artistic and life values inside and outside the world of theatre. Both in the play and reality, the main character Ella uncompromisingly delimits the deep-rooted social order and the theatre environment, which is hopelessly conventional and uninspiring for her. Directed by Adam Svozil at the South Bohemian Theatre, the extraordinary production opens current fundamental topics without proposing simple solutions or taking itself super seriously and manages to merge a strong appeal and apt detached view organically. Much of the credit goes to the actors, who can brilliantly switch between the fragile and intimate, and combative appeal and humorous hyperbole.“

Director Adam Svozil received the Award at the ceremony in VILA Štvanice on 6 June 2024.

The Mark Ravenhill Award project is supported by the City of Prague, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, State Cultural Fund, and Slovak Institute.