Benedict Lombe wins theatre prize for play ‘celebrating Blackness in its fullness’

British Congolese playwright receives Susan Smith Blackburn prize for her debut play, Lava, staged in 2021 at the Bush in London

Benedict Lombe has won this year's Susan Smith Blackburn prize for female, transgender and non-binary dramatists.

In a special presentation at Shakespeare's Globe in London on Monday night, Lombe was named the winner for her play, Lava, a memoir-monologue that travels from Mobutu's Democratic Republic of the Congo via post-apartheid South Africa to modern-day London. It is the first time in the history of the award, established in 1978, that the prize has gone to a debut play.