An award-winning Manx play has been showcased at a drama festival in the UK.

‘Shelter’, the winner of the Isle of Man ‘Easter Festival of Plays’ One act plays, was performed at the National Drama Festival in Bromsgrove, near Birmingham.

The Manx play was involved with 13 winners from other festivals from all over the UK, Guernsey and the Netherlands.

Shelter which was written by Jenny Derbyshire who also performs alongside Simon Fletcher. Jenny went on to win the Derek Jacobi award for the best new play.

Also featuring in Bromsgrove was the winner of the island’s ‘Easter Festival of Plays’ full-length play with North London-based Garden Suburb Theatre presented ‘Holding the Man’ based on the book by Timothy Conigrave.

Both plays are drawn from personal memories of family members being involved in the First and Second World Wars.

‘Easter Festival of Plays’ organiser Michael Lees attended the festival in Bromsgrove.

He said: ‘This was a national drama festival involving 13 winners from all over the UK, Guernsey, the Netherlands and the IoM. They have all won their individual festivals to qualify for the Best of the Best.

‘The standard was one of the highest I have seen and was adjudicated by Tristan Marshal who is one of the top Guild of Drama Adjudicators in the UK.

‘The award that Jenny won was the Derek Jacobi Playwriting award first presented in the Isle of Man when he visited in 2014 and is judged every year as part of the festival.

‘There are three independent judges for this award of which I am one and they all gave Jenny the top marks for her new play Shelter.’

‘Shelter’ is set in the Manchester Blitz in an Anderson shelter and includes the characters Will, a man who made it back from the horrors of Passchendaele, and Mary, his wife.

Will and Mary are not communicating properly since their son, Charlie, went to fight in the Second World War.

Talking about what gave her the idea for the play, Jenny previously told Island Life: ‘I started writing Shelter fairly soon after I had discovered that my great-grandfather had fought in the First World War and had made it home.

‘I started wondering how one would begin to process having seen such horrors in the first war, believing it to be “The Great War” and “The War to End All Wars”, and then years down the line, seeing your children being sent to a second war.

‘I couldn’t get my head around it and I wanted to delve into those feelings further.’

As a result of winning this year’s award, Jenny received £250 from publishers Stagescripts and a Stagescripts publishing deal.

There is now the possibility Shelter will embark on a UK tour in the near future.

In the meantime, the play will be performed on Friday, November 7 and Saturday, November 8 at Ballakermeen High School studio alongside Sharon Walker's ‘The Perfect Gentleman’ and the Isle of Man Arts Council choir.