‘The Vanya Variations’ Announced As Winner of 2025 Silver Gull Play Award

The 2025 Silver Gull Play Award, New Theatre’s ethos award for plays from NSW and ACT-based writers, has been awarded to Steven Vidler for The Vanya Variations.

Heavily inspired by Uncle Vanya, Chekhov’s iconic play of thwarted ambition, The Vanya Variations explores its themes, characters and ideas in a dashing and playful new form.

The Vanya Variations takes the original story of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya — about regret, wasted potential and missed dreams — and retells it through four different versions set in different times and social settings, using actors who switch genders and roles.

The judges were deeply amazed by Vidler’s modern retelling, describing it as “intense, rich, amazing power, humour and, in the final iteration, a lightning strike of satire illuminating and blasting our contemporary world.”

“This is dazzling work in breadth and depth. It deserves a world stage,” said the judges.

Vidler is an award-winning actor, writer and director. His debut feature Blackrock premiered at Sundance and was nominated for five AFI Awards, including Best Film. His mini-series A Difficult Woman, co-created with Nicholas Hammond for the ABC, won the Silver World Medal for Best Mini-Series at the New York Festival.

New Theatre’s Silver Gull Play Award

The Silver Gull Play Award is a competition for an unpublished and un-produced original play of 60 minutes or more that speaks to New Theatre’s ethos of “Plays With a Purpose”, for NSW and ACT-based writers aged 18 and over. This year, New Theatre received numerous entries with an exceptional standard of scripts.

After reviewing the overall quality and originality of the submissions, the judges shortlisted five plays, including The Crypt Dialogues by Peter Fleming, Lavender Sky by Jack Kearney, First, Do No Harm by Grace Malouf, Brief Candle by Simon Thomson, and the winner.

In addition, two plays were Highly Commended: Hiding Lights in Dark Places by Meg McDonald and The Bureau of Imagined Genealogy by Zoe Hogan.

A prize of $5000 was awarded to Steven, and a $500 prize each to the other shortlisted writers, courtesy of Joy Minter, who has supported the Silver Gull Play Award since its inception in 2015.