Quirky Bird Theatre have won the Harold Jolliffe One-Act Play Festival’s top prize to become champions for the second year in a row.

Their play ‘That Face’ is also the second by Polly Stenham that’s seen them to festival victory.

Performing last Saturday at the seventieth anniversary of the Harold Jolliffe One-Act Play Festival they scooped the top prize for the winning play along with awards for Dramatic Achievement, Best actress for Louise Thomas, Best Supporting Actor for Jamie Carter and Best Director for Anna Friend.

They will now progress to the next round of the All England Theatre Festival, a nation-wide theatre competition that sees groups compete at national and international level.

Festival director, Fenella Harrop, said “It’s been an incredibly special festival not only because we were celebrating our seventieth but also because the standard of the plays was so high, the adjudicator Nick Wilkes of GoDA was superb and everyone involved did such an amazing job. We are very proud that our festival is renowned for its high standards as well as being the friendliest, most theatrically passionate and the most well organised event around. And to see Quirky Bird Theatre triumph again was the icing on the cake.”

Runners Up, the Lechlade Players will also progress to the next round with their play ‘The Dreaming’ by Richard James. Adjudicator Nick Wilkes couldn’t praise this play enough saying the acting and directing was as good as any professional play you’ll see. The Lechlade Players also bagged two further gongs; Best Actor for Dominic Valentine and Best Supporting Actress for Helen Barter.

Newcomers to the festival C6 Productions won the award for Best Performance by a Youth Group with their play ‘Playhouse Creatures’ by April de Angelis. Hailing from Commonweal School’s sixth form they impressed adjudicator and audiences alike with their powerful performance of this bawdy drama. C6’s Emma Skane-Lawrence also won the award for Best Junior Actor.

The Swindon Advertiser Award for an Original Production was won by RWB Productions for their play 'Time To Go' written by local playwright Derek Clifford.

The next round of the All England Theatre Festival will be at the Bouverie Hall in Pewsey on April 22.