THE $25,000 Australia Council Award for Theatre has gone to Queanbeyan-born playwright Tommy Murphy, it was announced at last night’s (March 9) 2020 Australia Council Awards held in Sydney’s Eternity Playhouse.

This award acknowledges the achievements of an artist who has made an outstanding and sustained contribution to Australian theatre and previous recipients have included Rachael Maza (2019), Liz Jones AO (2018), Rosemary Myers (2017), Yaron Lifschitz (2016) and Bruce Gladwin (2015).

Murphy is one of Australia’s most active playwrights. He was a resident writer at Griffin Theatre Company from 2004–06, and during that time he wrote “Strangers in Between” and “Holding the Man”. Both plays are published by Currency Press in one volume. His play “Strangers in Between” won the national 2006 NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Best Play, and “Holding the Man” won the same Award in 2007, making him the youngest recipient of the award. He was also winner of the 2015 Patrick White Fellowship for playwriting.

As well, Michelle Ryan, director of the Restless Dance Theatre and a former Meryl Tankard dancer, who joined her company in Canberra and followed her to Adelaide, won the $25,000 award for dance.

The Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature went to writer Margaret Wild, the Don Banks Music Award to musician Deborah Conway, the Visual Arts Award to Brook Andrew, the Award for Emerging & Experimental Arts to “r e a”, the Ros Bower Award for community arts to Kath Duncan and the Kirk Robson Award for young artists to Autumn Skuthorpe.

Australia Council CEO Adrian Collette said that the diversity of the award recipients reflected the vibrancy of Australian arts, and “the capacity of creativity to connect us.”