Drumroll… And the winner of the Queensland Premier’s Drama Desk Award goes to …

After almost six months of suspense since the short-list was announced in February, the winner of the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award 2014-2015 was announced yesterday afternoon at a ceremony at the Bille Brown Studio.

The finalists were Daniel Evans (Oedipus Doesn’t Live Here Anymore), Megan Shorey (One in Seven) and Timothy Benzie (The Overflow). Each of these shortlisted plays has already had a professional playreading, which has been invaluable to the development process. Professor Richard Fotheringham, head of the Board of Directors of QTC, emphasised how pleased he was that the award has lasted since its inception in 2002 and has survived changes in government. The Premier was conspicuously absent, but the Minister for the Arts, Ian Walker, was there in his place to announce the winner, who is…*drum roll* …

… Daniel Evans, for his play Oedipus Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Evans is an established Brisbane playwright (Holy Guacamole) and theatre practitioner.

In his characteristically funny acceptance speech, Evans said the writing process of the play was “Pretty much me in my underpants listening to sad songs and making bad things happen to good people” (an image Wesley Enoch joked should be saved for later). Chatting to Evans afterwards, he described the play as “Oedipus in the suburbs of Brisbane” and said it’s about “the way we deal with tragedy in 2014”. As a recipient of the award, Evans will now enjoy a development process in collaboration with QTC, which will culminate in a professional production and the publication of his play towards the end of next year.