We’re delighted to announce the shows that jointly won this year’s ONCA Green Curtain award: Showwomen and Astra.

The field was strong and the ONCA team noticed a huge growth in the numbers of new works exploring the themes that are core to ONCA’s mission. We were fortunate enough to see many enjoyable and thought-provoking shows including:

• Helen Tennison’s experimental Doggerland – an intimate solo piece (Powerpoint meets interpretive dance) performed in the front room at Lionhouse ‘about boundaries, real and imaginary, and how they shape our experience of being human’;
• Aruhan Galieva‘s comic work in progress Eco-Maniac where the artist ‘navigates the mammoth headf*ck that is the climate crisis, as well as explore her experiences as a mixed-race British – Kazakhstani woman’, with original music written and performed by Aruhan;
• Invisible Sentence by Sussex Prisoners Families – a powerful play about what happens when a loved one goes to prison, with a script compiled of verbatim conversations based on the experiences of real women with a son, daughter or partner serving a prison sentence.

However, there were two pieces that stood out and which we felt jointly deserved to win the fifth Green Curtain award:

Astra, an eco sci-fi puppetry epic with accessibility at its core, written by Naomi Foyle and directed by Raven Kaliana;

Showwomen by Carnesky Productions, an impressive circus theatre production that explores the legacy of forgotten and marginalised British entertainers and looks at the collective power of women working together.

We’re looking forward to working with both companies in the coming year to support the further development of their work through ONCA’s spaces and platforms. Congratulations!