Roberta Wilkinson has won the 2026 Polka Playwriting Award with Doors, a new play for young audiences that will have its world premiere at Polka Theatre in Wimbledon in autumn 2027.
The play was picked from more than 140 submissions. Polka will develop it ahead of the premiere in its Adventure Theatre, and Methuen Drama will publish the script in 2027 as part of its Plays for Young People series.
The award is in its second year. It is given for original theatre written for children aged 7-13, and is run in association with The Garek Trust. The winner receives a full commission, a professional staging and publication. Entries rose from more than 80 in the first year to more than 140 this year.
Doors follows Bella, a twelve-year-old with a passion for puzzles. Her parents are separating, and her answer is a plan that may involve turning her block of flats like a Rubik’s Cube, so that her dad always lives next door. The play looks at siblings, at the people a community gathers around a child, and at families of every make-up.
Twelve young people from Polka’s GRADS programme read the shortlisted scripts first. The final decision fell to judges Matthew Xia, Nina Segal and Daniel Bailey, sitting with Polka’s artistic director and joint CEO, Helen Matravers.
Wilkinson is a Mancunian writer based in Oxford. She co-founded Geologise Theatre, which makes work for young audiences, and co-wrote the musical Chrissie and the Skiddle Witch, which toured schools in England and Wales in 2025. Doors is her first solo play.
“I’m so excited to develop ‘Doors’ with Polka and bring the story of twelve-year-old puzzle enthusiast Bella to life!” Wilkinson said, thanking Polka, the judges and Polka Young GRADS for “supporting new writing for this age group who are so often under-served by theatre”.
Matravers said the play “so brilliantly marries sometimes difficult subject matter for young audiences with playful, colourful worlds”. She added: “I can’t wait to work with Roberta on bringing her play to life and for Polka’s audiences to discover something brand new.”
The first award went to Sarah Middleton for Dweeb-A-Mania, which premiered at Polka in autumn 2025. It was nominated at the WhatsOnStage Awards and the Fringe Theatre Awards, and won Best new writing at the 2026 Fringe Theatre Awards. Methuen Drama published that script too.
Performance dates and the creative team for Doors are still to be announced. Polka has also expanded its schools programme for 2026-27.
For more information, visit the official website.
