Award-Winner “Kicks You In The Heart And Makes It Sing”

Young playwright Viki Moananu (Vailu’utai, Faleatiu, Tufulele) has taken the top prize in Playmarket’s 2025 Playwrights b4 25 competition supported by Auckland Live, with his play Quitters.

Based in Wellington, Viki has a growing list of accomplishments in theatre, including winning the Adam New Zealand Play Award for Best Pasifika Play in 2023 for Icky. He was awarded the Most Promising Emerging Pasifika Artist as part of the New Zealand Fringe Festival 2022 and was the 2023 Emerging Pasifika Writer in Residence at Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington. He is also celebrated for his work as a stand-up comedian, presenting Puka in 2024 and Poofta this year, as well as co-creating We Need to Talk with Alayne Dick.

Viki’s new play Quitters is a dramedy which ruminates on the guilt and frustration that remains among the living when someone takes their own life. Brutally honest, this fascinating ride leads the audience through grief, sexuality and the New Zealand mental health system.

Judges described Viki’s work as “a script that both kicks you in the heart and makes it sing” which “shows us the absurdity of living in a time when expressing your feelings is encouraged but acceptance and salvation for said feelings is less than adequate.”

The Playwrights b4 25 competition, run by Playmarket, the agency for New Zealand playwrights, recognises the best new writing for the stage by writers under the age of 25. Auckland Live, a division of Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, is the sponsor of the prize of $1,500 for the winning playwright, to put towards the development of a new work.

Helaina Keeley, Auckland Live’s Manager, Performing Arts, is thrilled to support this competition, saying, “Auckland Live takes enormous pride in supporting the next generation of talent. We’re looking forward to seeing the impact Viki will have on the stages of Aotearoa in years to come.”

Past winners of the competition include Jess Sayer, Nathan Joe, Finnius Teppett, Cassandra Tse and Sam Brooks.

Murray Lynch, Playmarket’s Tumuaki said, “Viki joins a line of compelling and influential winners of Playwrights b4 25. Emerging playwrights challenge old ideas and open doors to unexplored worlds of thought.”

Six other plays were shortlisted for the award. The plays and their writers are:

Mic Drop by Ayush Aditya and Marcus Savelio

Verdict by Pan Clark and Alanah Munn

Death, Ray by Zachary Klein

Iron Chef by Kayden Leftly

We’re Gonna Kill Billy by Alex Medland

Carry Me Home by Benjamin Wickers

Playmarket’s major funders are Creative New Zealand and Foundation North.

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