In their 50th year as a ground-breaking and innovative new writing company, this summer Paines Plough’s portable pop-up theatre venue Roundabout will return to Summerhall at Edinburgh Festival Fringe for its tenth year as a touring venue.
During the month of August, the award-winning, in-the-round auditorium will host a brand new commission from Paines Plough and a returning favourite, alongside a programme of visiting artists presenting a host of boundary-pushing new shows from 1-26 August. Tickets for Roundabout at Summerhall are now on sale at this link: festival24.summerhall.co.uk/events/?&venue=182
Paines Plough presents a new commission written by Kelly Jones, MY MOTHER’S FUNERAL: THE SHOW, which tackles the inequalities around death, and the cost of turning your loved ones into art with power and playfulness. It will be directed by Paines Plough’s Joint Artistic Director Charlotte Bennett.
Kelly Jones is a playwright and neo burlesque performer from Dagenham. She is the winner of the BBC Wales Drama Award 2014, alumni of the Emerging Playwrights Program at The Bush Theatre, BBC Drama Room 20/21, Mercury Theatre’s East England Voices and Orange Tree Theatre Writers Collective. Recent credits include Ghost Stories by Candlelight (Hightide/The Globe) When You See Me (Scottee and Friends), Room to Escape (NTW/BBC Arts), Comma (Sherman Theatre), Garden Paradiso (Mercury Theatre), Snout (Oran Mor) and Blud (The Otheroom). My Mother’s Funeral: The Show will preview at Belgrade Theatre in July before its Roundabout at Summerhall run, ahead of a UK tour.
To mark 10 years of Paines Plough’s iconic venue, Paines Plough and Second Half Productions will present EVERY BRILLIANT THING by Duncan Macmillan (Lungs) with Jonny Donahoe, a moving exploration of depression from both a child’s and an adult’s perspective. This will be in a new production directed by Duncan Macmillan. Every Brilliant Thing first played at the Roundabout at Summerhall in 2014, and has enjoyed an extensive life on stages around the world in the decade since, and was adapted into a highly successful HBO film in 2016.
These Edinburgh shows are announced alongside a programme of new writing by a host of visiting companies, curated by Paines Plough.
YESYESNONO returns with Nation following the success of their 2022 Roundabout play we were promised honey! Francesca Moody Productions – whose Roundabout shows Baby Reindeer and Kathy & Stella Solve A Murder! have gone on to huge success – return to the venue with V.L., the follow-up to the Fringe First winning Square Go by Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair. Two Women’s Prize for Playwriting finalists – How I Learned to Swim by Somebody Jones (Prentice Productions with Brixton House) and Bellringers by Daisy Hall (with returning co-producers Atticist, Ellie Keel Production and Hampstead Theatre) – both make their Roundabout debuts, with further debuts at the venue for Temi Wilkey for Main Character Energy, Gerel Falconer for Tones: A Hip-Hop Opera, Julia Grogan for Playfight (produced by Grace Dickson Productions following last year’s Lady Dealer), and Aisha Zia for Refugee!
Paines Plough also today announces James Graham (Dear England, Boys from the Blackstuff) as their new Patron. The prolific, Olivier-award winning playwright’s 2015 play The Angry Brigade was produced by Paines Plough. In this role, he will be a continued advocate for the company’s numerous strands of work, including their touring productions, their 50th birthday fundraising campaign, and contributing to their writer development programme, Tour the Writer.
James Graham said today: “Paines Plough was utterly instrumental on my path to becoming a playwright. Not only in the opportunities it offered me early on but in the training, confidence, and the sense of community it gave me. It is the UK’s one true national new writing theatre company, and to become patron in its 50th year – particularly to champion it’s Tour The Writer programme, linking up with seven partner venues across the country – is a massive honour, and honestly, a responsibility too given the extremely difficult climate and ever-decreasing options for emerging artists. Paines Plough, and Charlotte and Katie and their team, are to be applauded over their unrelenting passion and commitment for writers and writing.”
Katie Posner and Charlotte Bennett commented: “It’s been 50 years since Paines Plough was established over a pint of Paines bitter at the Plough pub. It’s 10 years since our magical spaceship theatre Roundabout was born. Feels like a pretty epic, landmark year, doesn’t it? So here it is: our celebration. Just like the plays and the writers we have championed across our 50 years, we are hosting another Roundabout at Summerhall with a programme that blazes with laughter, fury, love and hope. They are voices you might never have heard before. They speak about the world in new ways. They hold a mirror to our relationships with ourselves and one another. And we hope you love them just as much as we do.
We have had many, many conversations about the landscape for new writing and new writers. A lot of them are difficult conversations, with quite a few harsh truths about the challenging environment for writers to flourish within the industry as it currently is. But, in true Paines Plough style, we are holding on passionately to the dreams and ambitions of brilliant unheard writers that have guided us for half a century. This passion led us to Kelly Jones, a writer we met through our open submissions process in 2021. We were blown away by Kelly’s voice, which juggles so many meaty underrepresented issues with a deftness of touch. The play will be joining our incredible Edinburgh programme, and meet audiences around the country in the Autumn. We will also continue our pioneering Tour the Writer programme where we will mentor over 70 writers in partnership with seven theatre organisations around the country.
Whether you’re buying a ticket to one of the Roundabout shows, visiting us on tour, or donating to our 50 for 50 fundraising campaign, we warmly invite you to be part of this huge year for Paines Plough; to celebrate the future of new writing, to laugh, cry and want to change the world with us. We want to be a part of a positive shift today, and for the next 50 years.”
Paines Plough’s Tour the Writer has also entered its second year. Through mentoring sessions, masterclasses and networking opportunities, this multi-year project serves the company’s commitment to strengthen nationwide writer networks in partnership with seven theatre organisations across the country: Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, Freedom Studios/Bradford 2025 in Bradford, Mercury Theatre in Colchester, Theatre by the Lake in Keswick, Landmark Theatres in Peterborough and Barnstaple, and Theatre Royal Plymouth. Over the course of this year, Paines Plough alongside their partner organisations will mentor over 70 writers.
Following a sell-out, acclaimed run at Paines Plough’s Roundabout in 2023, Miriam Battye’s Strategic Love Play returns for a second run at Soho Theatre on 23 May – 15 June, this time in the Main House.
Another acclaimed Roundabout 2023 production Nathan Queeley-Dennis’ Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz will also embark on a tour, led by Ellie Keel Productions in a co-production with Paines Plough, visiting Birmingham Hippodrome (2-5 October) and Bristol Old Vic (15-19 October), with further dates to be announced soon .
To celebrate turning 50, the company has also launched their 50 for 50 fundraising campaign. 50 for 50 aims to raise £50,000 over the year to enable Paines Plough to continue platforming, producing and touring ground-breaking new plays, and nurture the next generation of writers. There will be special events planned throughout the year to celebrate this landmark moment for the company, which will be announced in due course. You can donate to the fundraising campaign here: www.painesplough.com/support-us/
