Roxana Vilk, a British Iranian writer, musician and performer based in Bristol and James Ley, a playwright and screenwriter living in Glasgow, have been chosen as the 2025 recipients. This is the first time in the nine-year history of the award that multiple winners have been selected.
Kevin Elyot’s archive was generously donated to the Theatre Collection by his family following his death in 2014. This comprises scripts, correspondence, manuscripts, and publicity material detailing Kevin's work from initial idea to finished product from across his entire career. The award will enable the recipients to explore the archive which they will use as inspiration to develop their own practice and create a new written work, and has been generously funded by an endowment given to the University by members of Kevin’s family.
Roxana’s work often explores themes of migration, identity and heritage. She plans to use the Kevin Elyot Award to develop a new stage play, provisionally titled آزادی /Azadi which is based on the true story of an Iranian woman who fled Tehran for London in the 1980s after being rejected by her family for her sexuality.
She is also planning a series of public workshops on screen adaptation—inviting playwrights and multidisciplinary writers to explore the archive and look specifically at Elyot’s techniques and the possibilities and challenges of adapting prose or stage work for screen.
Roxana said: “It is a dream come true to be a recipient of the award, as it offers a rare and generous opportunity to write a new play while engaging with the incredible legacy of a writer whose work continues to resonate deeply. I’m drawn to Elyot’s emotional precision, his economy of language, and the complex tenderness at the heart of his plays.”
James is best known for the play Love Song to Lavender Menace which premiered in 2017 at Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh. He also wrote and directed Ode to Joy (How Gordon Got to Go to the Nasty Pig Party) which won a Scotsman Fringe First in 2022 and was nominated for a CATS Award 2023 (Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland) for Best New Play.
He said: “It is a huge honour to be one of this year’s Kevin Elyot Award recipients. Kevin Elyot’s work has been a major influence and inspiration to me for as long as I’ve been a writer. When starting work on a new play, I frequently return to Kevin’s work and, in particular, to his incredibly crafted, hilariously funny and deeply moving masterpiece My Night With Reg.
“I am so excited to be able to spend time at the Bristol Theatre Collection, immersing myself in the Kevin Elyot archive, after which, I plan to write an exploratory first draft of a new play. I hope that the resulting work in some way reflects Kevin Elyot’s craft and process. I am so grateful to the panel for selecting me for this year’s Award and to Kevin Elyot for continuing to inspire me as a writer.”
Sian Williams, Keeper at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection, said: “The Kevin Elyot Award continues to go from strength to strength, with a record number of applications received this year. The standard of entries was exceptionally high, making it impossible for the panel to choose just one recipient. Thanks to the generosity of Kevin’s family, we are delighted to be able to give the full award to two outstanding recipients this year. We look forward to seeing where this opportunity takes them.”