We are delighted that St Ann’s playwright Mufaro Makubika has won the 2017 Alfred Fagon Award for the best new play by a black British playwright.

Shebeen, which is set within Nottingham’s Caribbean community in the 1950s, will premiere at Nottingham Playhouse in June next year.

Mufaro was presented with the award by screenwriter and director Amma Asante (Belle, A United Kingdom) at a ceremony at the National Theatre in London. He told The Stage: “I was born in Zimbabwe and I came to England when I was 16, I saw my first play when I was 18 and I fell in love with the theatre. This has been an award that I wanted to get involved in ever since then.

“Shebeen is a play about the place I live – St Ann’s in Nottingham. Shebeen is about my neighbours, my family and the community of St Ann’s, and a history that you might not know, but I felt it was important to shine a light on.”

Mufaro presented his first play, How to Breathe, in the Neville Studio at Nottingham Playhouse in 2015. Shebeen will be his first main-stage production at Nottingham Playhouse, which will then enjoy a run at Theatre Royal Stratford East.

Congratulations Mo!