Grace Hatchell Reporting From the Captain’s Desk
When I’m not navigating this fine ship through calm waters, you’ll usually find me sorting through my nautical postbag to see what theatrical delights have arrived on board. Today, there’s a real treasure: Ambassador Cruise Line and PEEL Entertainment Group have officially announced the winner of the Ambassador PEEL Playwriting Challenge 2025. After an impressive judging process, the honour goes to Venison by Huw Turnbull.
At a time when opportunities for emerging playwrights can feel rarer than a clear horizon in a storm, this challenge has been created to champion talented writers and give their work a stage worth celebrating.
A Black Comedy Served With Suspense
Venison is a darkly comic farce about Dan, Bill and Max, who arrive at a dinner party expecting to see their friend Jane. Instead, they are greeted by her unsettling boyfriend Jerry and the mysterious promise of venison cooking in the kitchen. As the temperature rises, so do the suspicions, and what begins as a polite evening quickly turns into a gripping murder mystery. The play cleverly tackles our modern fascination with crime as entertainment and questions how far we are willing to go for a story.
If any of them had joined us on deck, I’d have insisted on something a little calmer than venison, preferably without any plot twists involving the cutlery.
A Challenge That Makes Theatre Waves
Designed to support new voices in theatre, the Ambassador PEEL Playwriting Challenge invited a substantial number of submissions from across the country. The judges were genuinely struck by the creativity, intelligence and originality on display.
Judge Dr Jessica Lazar noted just how rare it is for new plays, especially those with larger casts, to be staged for sizeable audiences. As part of the prize, Venison will be staged on a cruise ship theatre seating 800 and will be seen by more than 20,000 people over the year. She praised the variety and ambition across the shortlist and highlighted the runner-up, The Splintered Globe, as a bold Queer homage to Restoration comedy. If I were dining in the Captain’s Quarters, I would happily invite every finalist to join me for dessert.
Unfortunately, competitions can only have one winner, but from the sound of it these plays deserve meaningful futures.
A Prize With Ocean Views
The winning play will be staged onboard Ambition in 2026 as part of the long-running Theatre at Sea programme, operated by Ambassador Cruise Line and PEEL Entertainment. The playwright receives a £6,000 cash prize and a complimentary cruise for two. Yes, a playwriting award that includes a balcony cabin and ocean sunsets. I have seen far less inspiring rehearsal rooms.
This is also the first playwriting award of its kind to take place on a cruise ship, giving it genuine theatrical novelty. I personally approve of innovation at sea. It makes navigating the ocean that little bit more dramatic.
Theatre at Sea: Twenty-Five Years On the Waves
Theatre at Sea has been running for more than twenty-five years, staging dramas, comedies, mysteries and modern retellings to great acclaim. The programme features some of the last UK repertory acting troupes, performing in rotation directly onboard Ambassador ships. Producing theatre in the middle of the ocean lends every show an atmosphere of adventure; passengers drifting between time zones and cocktail menus find themselves drawn into a fully staged drama before returning to stargazing on deck.
It is extremely hard to tell which generates the greater suspense: a murder mystery or the tension of late-night bingo.
The Judges and Creative Team
This year’s distinguished judging panel included Dr Jessica Lazar (director of Sap and The Gift), Dr Alison Norrington, a prolific producer and writer with more than twenty-five years of experience, Nathan Queely Dennis (winner of the 2022 Bruntwood Prize for Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz), and Susannah Daley, founder of PEEL Entertainment and BBC award-winning playwright.
The shortlist featured a rich array of emerging voices: 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).
Backing this process was a team of experienced readers: Dr Chris Ford, James Stone and Martin Pearson, each bringing decades of theatre insight. Once Venison is officially in production, Kerry Daley, creative lead of Theatre at Sea, will oversee rehearsals and appoint a director and full creative team, ensuring the playwright’s vision arrives fully formed on the high seas.
Final Thoughts From The Captain
Emerging playwrights need stages that are alive, generous and filled with audiences who are eager to discover the next great story. Staging that opportunity on a cruise ship feels entirely fitting. Theatre is about stepping away from the world, being suspended between certainty and imagination, and sharing a story together. A theatre floating between ports only makes that magic more literal.
A heartfelt congratulations to Huw Turnbull and to every playwright who entered. The ocean has always been a place where stories drift, collide and take on new shapes. Venison now joins that fleet.
As for dinner parties, I strongly recommend mine over Jerry’s. The worst thing likely to happen here is running out of custard.
Grace Hatchell
Captain of Calm Seas and Confidential Theatre Satchels
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