by FilmInk Staff
Australian playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer, winner of the English as a First Language category in this year’s BBC World Service International Audio Drama Competition, will have his winning work broadcast on BBC World Service Radio on 31 October.
Run by the BBC World Service in partnership with the British Council, the International Audio Drama Competition celebrates outstanding storytelling and emerging writers worldwide. This year’s competition attracted more than 800 entries from 87 countries, with winners chosen by an international panel of readers and judges.
As well as a cash prize, Finegan received the opportunity to turn his script into a studio production made by the BBC. Here, on a High Hill is a moving, surprising, poetic drama for voices, starring Orla Scally, Zakaria Meknas, Máiréad Tyers and Oskar Smith.
Synopsis: In a graveyard on a hilltop in South-West Ireland, four teenagers gather, pass the time and reflect on life. Something terrible has happened.
Finegan Kruckemeyer is a playwright who is committed to making strong and respectful work for children. He has had 105 commissioned plays performed on six continents and translated into eight languages. Kruckemeyer has received 42 awards (at least one each year since 2002) including the 2017 Mickey Miners Lifetime Achievement Award for services to international theatre for young audiences, the 2015 David Williamson Award for Excellence in Australian Playwrighting, and an inaugural Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship. He published his first novel in 2024, titled ‘The End and Everything Before It’. Born in Skibbereen, County Cork, in Ireland’s south-west, Kruckemeyer moved to Adelaide aged 8. He lived in Tasmania as an adult for 15 years before returning to South Australia.
Listen to Here, on a High Hill via the BBC World Service from October 31 HERE.
Image: Fiona Shaw (centre) with the two winners, Idi Nasiru (left) and Finegan Kruckemeyer (right).
