"The 30-year-old recalls the moment: The first sentence I heard her say, I was like, That could be any of the plays.' Then I was like, Holy shit! This is the maddest thing that's ever happened to me.' The news still hasn't fully sunk in, but anyone who has read Sapling will not be surprised by Duncan's victory. Set in Belfast in the 1990s, the play follows 16-year-old Gerry, whose older brother Connor was murdered 10 years earlier by another child."
"I wrote most of the play on my commute Duncan admits she didn't know much about the Troubles before she began writing Sapling but , determined to make the play right, she took prison tours in Belfast, and rode in the back of a black cab with a driver named Cedric to absorb the city's history and geography, while also meeting Northern Irish actors to talk through her ideas. I paid them with a pint and a bowl of chips."
"Her dedication paid off: Sapling rigorously paints a detailed picture of a scarred community. Even just on the page, there is an aliveness to her words, and she writes the kind of characters actors will be eager to play. This makes sense as Duncan is a trained actor, too. She graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 2018 and went on to star in The Mousetrap, the Agatha Christie West End staple and world's longest-running play."
Sapling won the Women's prize for playwriting. Set in 1990s Belfast, the drama follows 16-year-old Gerry living with the legacy of his older brother Connor's murder by another child a decade earlier. The play probes the scar tissue behind grief and the persistent fear of loss. Research included prison tours in Belfast, black-cab rides to absorb local history and geography, and consultations with Northern Irish actors who were paid with a pint and chips. Much of the play was written on commutes. A background in acting informs the lively dialogue and richly drawn roles suited to performers.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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