The Dry House writer & director, Irish actor and playwright Eugene O’Hare has been announced as the winner of The Victoria Wood Playwriting Prize for Comedy for his play Portugal.

Eugene O’Hare’s two-act comedy is centred on a working-class Belfast woman called Jennifer, who says that her life is so ordinary that she no longer feels like she exists. Her desire to be set free and find a completely different life in Portugal throws her family and fiancé into a mad spin. Portugal is about taking ownership of your one shot at life no matter who you upset along the way.

Eugene O'Hare wrote and directed Marylebone Theatre production The Dry House in 2023, starring Kathy Kiera Clarke (Aunt Sarah from Derry Girls) as Claire, alongside Mairead McKinley (Edge of Tomorrow, Molly’s Way) as Claire’s sister Chrissy, and Carla Langley (The Ferryman, Carnival Row) as Chrissy’s daughter Heather

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