Late Windrush victim’s compensation to fund prize for British Caribbean playwrights

Shereener Browne set up the prize in memory of her father, Myron Brown. Photograph: Sarah M Lee/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Shereener Browne set up the prize in memory of her father, Myron Brown. Photograph: Sarah M Lee/The Guardian Late Windrush victim’s compensation to fund prize for British Caribbean playwrights The Windrush Prize will award £10,000 to the writer of the winning play, which will receive a run at the Arcola theatre next year The first prize dedicated to discovering and developing British Caribbean playwrights has been launched using compensation awarded to a Windrush victim who died before receiving it. The Windrush Prize for British Caribbean Playwrights, believed to be the first major prize of its kind in 30 years, has been established by Shereener Browne, the founder and artistic director of Orísun Productions and a former barrister, in memory of her late father, Myron Brown. The prize will award £10,000 to a UK-based British Caribbean playwright over the age of 18. The winning play will receive a minimum three-week run at the Arcola theatre in 2027, co-produced by Arcola and Orísun Productions, and will be published by Methuen Drama. The prize is open to represented and unrepresented playwrights, with submissions required to be unpublished, full-length plays. The launch of the prize is one of a number of events taking place across the UK to mark Windrush Day, which commemorates the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks in Essex in June 1948, bringing passengers from the Caribbean who helped rebuild postwar Britain. Browne’s father came to Britain from St Kitts and Nevis in the 1960s, and spent decades living and working in the UK before being told he was no longer a British citizen when he tried to renew his passport. He was one of thousands of mainly Black Britons who were wrongly classed as illegal migrants and stripped of citizenship rights over decades. Browne said the experience had a devastating impact on her father’s sense of self. “I didn’t understand until my father came to live with me how deeply British he felt,” she said. “He felt completely rejected when he couldn’t get his passport back.” She added that the stripping of his British identity left him questioning who he was. “His very identity was taken away from him in one fell swoop, without consultation and seemingly overnight. It knocked his confidence and his mental health.” Browne applied to the Windrush Compensation Scheme on her father’s behalf after he developed dementia and suffered strokes. She said her father died before the money was paid, despite her asking officials to expedite the claim because he had little time left. After he died, she was instructed to go through probate in order to access the compensation. “I explained to them that it felt like pulling the scab off a wound. When I should be getting on with the job of grieving the loss of my father, I was having to jump through hoops, go through red tape, when it wasn’t