The musical theatre adaptation of My Brilliant Career, adapted from Miles Franklin’s iconic proto-feminist tale about the headstrong and determined Sybylla Melvyn and staged by Melbourne Theatre Company, has taken home the richest annual playwriting award in the country.
My Brilliant Career AWGIE Award – quick links
My Brilliant Career wins the David Williamson Prize
Last Thursday (18 February), the production – praised by ArtsHub as ‘a stellar adaptation bristling with verve, wit and skill’ – won the prestigious $120,000 David Williamson Prize for Excellence in Writing for Australian Theatre at the Australian Writers’ Guild’s AWGIE Awards. The awards have been presented annually since 1968 and recognise excellence in screen, television, stage and radio writing.
Writers Sheridan Harbridge, Dean Bryant and Mathew Frank also received the AWGIE Award for Best Script in Music Theatre, securing a double win on the night:
‘The team are thrilled to have My Brilliant Career recognised at the AWGIEs, Australia’s premier writing awards. It’s a fraught time to be an artist and this musical honours the bravery of that choice. We can’t wait to share the production with the rest of the country as Sybylla and her band go on tour,’ the creative trio said in a joint statement.
What is My Brilliant Career about?
The protagonist of My Brilliant Career is Sybylla Melvyn, an intelligent, headstrong young woman in rural Australia in the 1890s, who longs for independence and a literary career and chafes against the traditional expectations of a woman’s lot in life. When offered security through marriage, she ultimately rejects it, choosing personal freedom and ambition over romance.
The production is currently playing a return season at MTC’s Southbank Theatre, ahead of seasons in Canberra, Sydney and Wollongong in March through to May.
Commenting on the script, the judges praised My Brilliant Career as being ‘written with confidence and pure talent, leaping off the page in a fresh, sparkling, new work. With humour, wit and pathos the script bounced and sang its way through a uniquely Australian story and landscape … creating a brand new Australian classic.’
My Brilliant Career had previously received five Green Room Awards (Melbourne’s premier, peer-selected and presented performing arts industry awards) including Outstanding Production during its premiere season – standing shoulder-to-shoulder with major commercial musicals.
MTC Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer Anne-Louise Sarks, who directs the production, said in a statement: ‘This is an extraordinary acknowledgement of Sheridan, Dean and Mathew’s work, and a powerful endorsement of new Australian musical theatre. Audiences have embraced this story and Sybylla wholeheartedly and this award recognises the place of My Brilliant Career in the national canon.’
About the David Williamson Prize
The David Williamson Prize for Excellence in Writing for Australian Theatre is awarded by the Australian Writers’ Guild annually to the most outstanding script selected from the winners of each of the theatre categories at the AWGIE Awards. It is made possible by the generous donation of Shane and Cathryn Brennan and David and Kristin Williamson.
In 2025, the prize was increased to become the richest annual playwriting award in the country. The winning playwright now receives $40,000, with a further $80,000 awarded to the theatre company who staged the winning work, taking the total prize to $120,000.
The express purpose of the fund is to champion the work of Australian playwrights and encourage theatre companies to commission, develop and program new Australian work.
Harbridge recently wrote and starred in Amplified: The Exquisite Rock and Rage of Chrissy Amphlett, a new Australian play honouring and celebrating the Chrissy Amphlett, the late frontwoman of Australian rock band Divinyls, at Belvoir St Theatre. It will play a limited run at the Seymour Centre in April.
ArtsHub: Amplified review: the exquisite rock and rage of Chrissy Amphlett
Later this year, Harbridge will perform in the encore season of Suzie Miller’s Olivier-award winning play Prima Facie, the role she originated in 2019 before Jodie Comer’s West End and Broadway runs. It will play a homecoming tour across Melbourne and Sydney in May and June.
The original production of Prima Facie, starring Harbridge, received the David Williamson Prize for Excellence in Writing for Australian Theatre at the AWGIE Awards in 2020.
Other previous recipients of the David Williamson Prize include Alana Valentine for Grounded (2013), Andrew Bovell for The Secret River (2014), Finegan Kruckemeyer for The Boy at the Edge of Everything (2015), Angus Cerini for The Bleeding Tree (2016), Leah Purcell for The Drover’s Wife (2017), PJ Hogan with Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttall for Muriel’s Wedding the Musical (2018), Kate Mulvany for The Harp in the South (2019), Ellen Graham and Jamie Hornsby for Claire Della and the Moon (2021), Maxine Mellor for Horizon (2022), Dylan Van Den Berg for Whitefella Yella Tree (2023) and Blake Erickson and Jay James Moody (book) and Laura Murphy (music and lyrics) for The Dismissal: An Extremely Serious Musical Comedy (2024).
New works commissioned, developed and staged with support from the David Williamson Prize include Packer and Sons (2019) by Tommy Murphy, Wonnangatta (2020) by Angus Cerini, Playing Beatie Bow (2021) by Kate Mulvany, Jailbaby (2023) by Suzie Miller, Big Yikes! (2024) by Madeleine Border and Starweaver (2024) by Ellen Graham and Jamie Hornsby.
