SHE came, she wrote and she conquered.

Playwright Ovidia Yu is the new Theatre Idol.

In a thrilling battle of the plays between her and playwright Chong Tze Chien at the Esplanade Concert Hall on Monday, Yu's dark tale about abusive relationships trounced Chong's modern comedy of manners.

The competition was part of drama group Action Theatre's Singapore Theatre Oasis, a programme which develops and nurtures new works.

The playwriting competition is modelled after the reality talent show American Idol and playwrights slug it out to get their work produced by the group.

Yu, 45, says: 'I'm still a bit stunned. Three people came up to talk to me about the play after the event and that meant more to me than winning.'

She wrote the play Hitting (On) Women in three weeks after sitting on her notes for nearly a year.

The script that resulted was about a woman coming to terms with her past relationship with an abusive lover.

In contrast, Chong's script, On Sundays The Kites Come Out To Play, was a breezier affair which touched on alternative family units in contemporary society.

The two plays were chosen from two preliminary rounds earlier.

At the finals on Monday night, the playwrights came ready to do battle. Chong went on stage clad in a gladiator's outfit while Yu wore a menacing black trenchcoat.

Actors like Lim Yu-Beng and Janice Koh gave dramatised readings of the plays and the 800 people in the audience voted via SMS for the one they wanted to see fully staged.

In the end, 63 per cent of the audience voted for Yu's work.

The two-member judging panel comprised National University of Singapore theatre studies lecturer K.K. Seet and The Business Times arts correspondent Parvathi Nayar.

Dr Seet said he was 'struck by the subtlety of (Yu's) craft and her ability to tease out insight from the humdrum'.

The event struck a chord with those who attended too.

Mr Eng Shou Jie, 20, a full-time NS man, said: 'Janice Koh delivered the funny lines without letting them fall flat and she emoted so well in the darker scenes.

'Generally, I think Theatre Idols is interesting as you get to see two plays compete head-to-head.'

Yu's play will be staged by Action Theatre at the end of this year or early next year.