Download Paines Plough Programme 2010

News Release Issued 18 May 2010
Paines Plough
The national theatre of new plays.
PAINES PLOUGH RELAUNCHES UNDER NEW ARTISTIC
DIRECTORS
James Grieve and George Perrin, Paines Plough‟s newly appointed Artistic Directors, launch their inaugural
programme presenting 9 productions, featuring work by 67 playwrights in 21 towns and cities across the UK.
The programme opens with 61 playwrights uniting in a new project – Come to Where I’m From. Using the
village, town or city where they are from as inspiration, the writers write and perform these original works at
14 partner venues across the UK including Sheffield Theatres, Sherman Cymru in Cardiff and Bristol Old Vic.
In a new collaboration with Òran Mór, Paines Plough has co-commissioned brand new plays by April De
Angelis, David Harrower, Marie Jones, Linda McLean and Gary Owen to take on the road as part of the
award-winning A Play, A Pie and A Pint. Following performances at Òran Mór, the productions will tour to the
Traverse Theatre Edinburgh, Live Theatre Newcastle, Bewleys Cafe Theatre Dublin and the Belgrade Theatre
Coventry.
Grieve‟s directorial debut for the company is Tiny Volcanoes by Laurence Wilson – a co-production with
Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, commissioned by The Latitude Festival where it will premiere this summer
before an autumn tour.
In addition Paines Plough will reunite with Drum Theatre Plymouth to present the world première of Mike
Bartlett‟s new play. The production, directed by Grieve, will open at the Drum Theatre before touring.
Further details will be announced at a later date. Mike Bartlett also joins the company as Associate
Playwright during 2010.
Paines Plough has entered into a collaboration with Rose Bruford College which culminates in May and June
with The Future Perfect Season. The company has nurtured 6 emerging playwrights through the Channel
4/Film 4 supported Future Perfect scheme, giving them the platform to write and showcase their work for
large casts.
Continuing the company‟s long established commitment to playwrights, Paines Plough has launched a bespoke
playwright development space called The Big Room and an Associate Companies Scheme to support
emerging new writing companies.
James Grieve and George Perrin said today: “We are delighted that our first programme of work has such a
wide spectrum of playwrights at its heart. The enthusiasm with which so many exceptionally talented
playwrights – from Olivier Award-winners to first time writers – have responded to our invitation to work with
the company is testament to Paines Plough‟s treasured reputation, as is the calibre of our co-commissioning
and co-producing partners across the UK. It‟s thrilling for us to be able to say to so much of the country that
we‟re coming soon to a theatre near you.”
For further information, please contact: Kate Morley at Blueprint PR / 07970 465 648 /
[email protected]
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News Release Issued 18 May 2010
World Premières
COME TO WHERE I’M FROM
A Paines Plough production
in association with Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse, Sheffield Theatres, New Wolsey Theatre, Live Theatre
Newcastle, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Ransom Productions/Island Arts Centre Belfast, Sherman Theatre,
Hull Truck Theatre, Watford Palace Theatre, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, the Belgrade Theatre Coventry,
Nottingham Playhouse, Oxford Playhouse and the Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester
In an ambitious undertaking, Paines Plough has co-commissioned 61 playwrights including David Edgar,
Alia Bano, Leo Butler and Penelope Skinner to return to their home towns and write plays inspired by
their memories of the place that shaped them. Across 14 venues throughout the UK, Come to Where I’m
From forms a nationwide theatrical tapestry examining if home is really where the heart is.
The schedule for Come to Where I’m From is:
Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse: Everyword Festival | 19 May
Writers: Helen Blakeman, Lizzie Nunnery, Keith Saha, Michael Wynne
Box Office: 0151 709 4776
www.everymanplayhouse.com
Sheffield Theatres: Forge Festival | 26 May
Writers: Leo Butler, Richard Cameron, Matt Hartley, Tom Hill, Emteaz Hussein,
Box Office: 0114 249 6000
www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk
New Wolsey Theatre: Pulse Festival | 28 May
Writers: Molly Davies, Joel Horwood, Ian McHugh, Niki Werenowska
Box Office: 01473 295 900
www.wolseytheatre.co.uk
Live Theatre, Newcastle | 19 June
Writers: Alison Carr, Michael Chaplin, Dick Curran, Tracey Whitwell
Box Office: 0191 232 1232
www.live.org.uk
Birmingham Repertory Theatre | 21 June
Writers: Alia Bano, David Edgar, Cheryl Payne, David Watson
Box Office: 0121 236 4455
www.birmingham-rep.co.uk
Ransom Productions/Island Arts Centre, Belfast | 25 June
Writers: Richard Dormer, Stacey Gregg, David Ireland, Rosemary Jenkinson, Martin Lynch
Box Office: 028 9250 254
www.islandartscentre.com
Sherman Theatre, Cardiff | 1 July
Writers: Matthew Bulgo, Samantha Burns, Alan Harris, Bethan Marlow, Tim Price
Box Office: 029 2064 6900
www.shermancymru.co.uk
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News Release Issued 18 May 2010
Watford Palace Theatre | 9 July
Writers: Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, Guy Jones, Glyn Maxwell, Adam Taylor
Box Office: 01923 225 671
www.watfordtheatre.co.uk
Bristol Old Vic Theatre | 10 July
Writers: Tim Atack, Natalie McGrath, Adam Peck, Tom Wainwright
Box Office: 0117 987 7877
www.bristololdvic.org.uk
The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry | 14 July
Writers: Vanessa Oakes, Chris O’Connell, Alan Pollock, Paven Virk
Box Office: 024 7655 3055
www.belgrade.co.uk
Nottingham Playhouse | 22 July
Writers: Leah Chillery, James Graham, Laura Lomas, Mufaro Makubika, Beth Steel
Box Office: 0115 941 9419
www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk
Oxford Playhouse | 24 July
Writers: Mike Bartlett, Alice Birch, Catriona Kerridge, Duncan Macmillan, Penelope Skinner
Box Office: 01865 305 305
www.oxfordplayhouse.co.uk
The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester | 3 November
Writers: Lucinda Cardey, Phil Davies, Sarah McDonald Hughes, Rory Mullarkey, Chris Thorpe, Joy
Wilkinson
Box Office: 0161 833 9833
www.royalexchange.co.uk
To complement Come to Where I’m From, Paines Plough will run workshops in most of the venues entitled
Producing Plays, Developing Playwrights aimed at working with early stage writers and If it Didn’t Exist,
You’d Have to Invent it for emerging companies.
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News Release Issued 18 May 2010
World Premières
A PLAY, A PIE AND A PINT
A Paines Plough/Òran Mór production
in association with the Traverse Theatre Edinburgh, the Belgrade Theatre Coventry, Live Theatre Newcastle
and Bewleys Cafe Theatre Dublin
Brand new plays by the UK‟s leading writers David Harrower, Marie Jones, Linda McLean, April De Angelis
and Gary Owen will tour to five venues – with a pie and a pint thrown in.
In collaboration with Òran Mór where the plays will begin, Paines Plough has commissioned new 45
minute plays that will tour to Edinburgh, Newcastle, Dublin and Belfast.
Directors will include Grieve and Perrin themselves.
Òran Mór‟s groundbreaking lunchtime theatre programme began in 2004 and now commissions and
produces work by some of today‟s most important writers. This autumn sees Paines Plough touring the
season, for the first time, to Scotland, England and Ireland.
ÒRAN MÓR, Glasgow
Box Office: 0141 357 620
www.oran-mor.co.uk
30 August – 2 October
LIVE THEATRE, Newcastle
Box Office: 0191 232 1232
www.live.org.uk
13 September – 16 October
THE TRAVERSE, Edinburgh
Box Office: 0131 228 1404
www.traverse.co.uk
20 September – 23 October
THE BELGRADE, Coventry
Box Office: 024 7655 3055
www.belgrade.co.uk
27 September – 30 October
BEWLEYS THEATRE, Dublin
Box Office: +353 (0)86 8784001
www.bewleyscafetheatre.com
4 October – 6 November
April De Angelis’s theatre work includes Amongst Friends, (Hampstead Theatre), Catch - a collaboration
with four other female playwrights, Wild East, Havana, Hush (Royal Court), Headstrong (NT Shell
Connections), A Laughing Matter (Out of Joint, UK Tour & National Theatre), The Warwickshire
Testimony (RSC), The Positive Hour (Out of Joint & Hampstead Theatre), Playhouse Creatures (Sphinx
Theatre Company, Old Vic & West Yorkshire Playhouse), Soft Vengeance (Graeae Theatre Company), The
Life and Times of Fanny Hill (Red Shift) and Ironmistress (ReSisters Theatre Company). De Angelis‟s work
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News Release Issued 18 May 2010
for radio includes a serialisation of Peyton Place, Visitants for BBC Radio 4 and The Outlander for Radio
5, which won the Writer's Guild Award. She has also written for Glyndebourne and the ENO and most
recently wrote The Silent Twins libretto, which was set to music by Errollyn Wallen at the Almeida.
David Harrower is an internationally acclaimed playwright. Previous theatre work includes Knives in
Hens, (Traverse Theatre & The Bush), Dark Earth , Kill the Old Torture Their Young (Traverse Theatre),
The Chrysalids (NT Connections), Presence (Royal Court), Blackbird (Edinburgh International Festival,
West End, Manhattan Theatre Club, Sydney Theatre Company), 365 (National Theatre of Scotland).
Adaptations include Büchner‟s Woyzeck (Edinburgh Lyceum), Ödön von Horváth‟s Tales from the Vienna
Woods, Chekhov‟s Ivanov (National Theatre), Jon Fosse„s The Girl on the Sofa (Edinburgh International
Festival & Schaubuhne, Berlin), Schiller‟s Mary Stuart (National Theatre of Scotland), Pirandello‟s Six
Characters in Search of an Author , Schnitzler's Liebelei as Sweet Nothings, Brecht‟s The Good Soul of
Szechuan (Young Vic).
Marie Jones is an award-winning Irish writer and has written extensively for stage and television. Her
play Stones in His Pockets was an international success and won numerous awards the world over. Both
Women on the Verge of HRT and A Night in November were revived in London and Belfast in 2008 and
HRT tours the UK in 2009 starring Sarah Lancashire.
Jones is one of the founding members of the Charabanc Theatre Company and was its Writer in
Residence from 1983-90. Also as an actress, she played Sarah Conlon in the Jim Sheridan film In the
Name of the Father. Jones received the John Hewitt Award for outstanding contribution to culture,
tradition and the arts in Northern Ireland.
Gary Owen is an award-winning Welsh playwright. Owen won the George Devine and Meyer Whitworth
Award for his play The Shadow of a Boy and The Pearson Best Play Award for The Drowned World which
was produced by Paines Plough. Owen is currently working on an original series for BBC Wales called The
Fabulous Baker Boys which he is co-writing with Helen Raynor.
Linda McLean is a Scottish playwright. Her plays for theatre and radio have been performed
internationally, most recently including Reminded of Beauty (Playwrights Studio & Royal Scottish
Academy of Music & Drama) and Strangers, Babies (Traverse Theatre). In 1999 Riddance won a Herald
Angel and Fringe First in its Paines Plough production.
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News Release Issued 18 May 2010
World Première
TINY VOLCANOES
By Laurence Wilson
A Paines Plough/Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse production of a Latitude Festival commission
Director: James Grieve
Cast: Kevin Harvey, Michael Ryan
The Great British Bulldog has been usurped by snarling hybrids. The bowler hat has morphed into a
hoodie. The culture of polite society is now a culture of blame and hatred as our land of hope and glory
is torn into extremes.
Fusing theatre, comedy, dance and tub-thumping tunes, two actors play a cast of thousands in an
excoriating inquisition into broken Britain. This fast paced comedy hurtles through the dilapidated
attractions of noble old Blighty exposing the millions of tiny volcanoes bubbling up through our green and
pleasant land.
Tiny Volcanoes opens at the Liverpool Everyman before performances at the Latitude Festival and the
North Wall Arts Centre in Oxford. Further tour dates will be announced for the autumn.
Laurence Wilson won the 2010 Theatre Centre's Brian Way award for his play Blackberry Trout Face,
produced by 20 Stories High theatre company. Laurence‟s first plays, Urban Legend (winner of the
Liverpool Daily Post Play of the Year Award) and Lost Monsters were produced at the Liverpool Everyman
& Playhouse. A former Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Pearson Writer in Residence, Laurence‟s first
professional work as a writer was a trilogy of short plays called Surf’s Up, nominated for two Manchester
Evening News Awards. Most recently Laurence has had two further productions at Liverpool Everyman of
Spirits of the Stone and Lost Monsters.
Kevin Harvey‟s theatre work includes Wig Out (Royal Court), Tartuffe (Liverpool Everyman), Stags and
Hens (Royal Court Liverpool) and Chapter 21 (Breaking Cycles/National Theatre). For television his
credits include Paradox and Spooks; and for film, A Boy Called Dad and Salvage.
Michael Ryan‟s recent theatre credits include Crying in the Chapel and Cell (Contact Theatre,
Manchester), and The May Queen and Paradise Bound (Liverpool Everyman). For television his work
includes Doctors, Moving On and Hollyoaks; and for film, Awaydays, RocknRolla and Revenger’s Tragedy.
James Grieve directs. For his biography, please see Notes to Editors, page 11.
Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse – 20 May
Box Office: 0151 709 4776
www.everymanplayhouse.com
Latitude Festival – 16-18 July
Box Office: 0115 912 9000
www.latitudefestival.co.uk
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News Release Issued 18 May 2010
North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford – 21 July
Box Office: 01865 319 450
www.thenorthwall.com
Nationwide tour starting in November 2010
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News Release Issued 18 May 2010
World Première
THE FUTURE PERFECT SEASON
A Paines Plough/Rose Bruford production of a Paines Plough commission
Paines Plough and Rose Bruford College are collaborating on this six-strong programme of new plays by the
writers of the 2009 Future Perfect programme. These plays offer the writers unique opportunities to work
with large ensemble casts, with an exciting new generation of performers. The plays are directed by Grieve,
Tessa Walker (Paines Plough‟s Literary Director), Iain Reekie and David Zoob (Rose Bruford Programme
Director/Senior Lecturer).
The six writers involved with the scheme are:
Tom Wells
We Planted Some Sunflowers
Director: Tessa Walker
Lucinda Cardey
Organised
Director: James Grieve
Penelope Skinner
Midnight at the Hotel Beauregard
Director: David Zoob
Adam Taylor
Park High School Musical
Director: Tessa Walker
Laura Lomas
Some Machine
Director: Iain Reekie
Danielle Sibley
Beneath the Light
Director: Iain Reekie
Rose Bruford
27-29 May - We Planted Some Sunflowers, Organised, Midnight at the Hotel Beauregard
3-5 June – Park High School Musical, Some Machine, Beneath the Lights
020 8308 2626 / [email protected]
www.bruford.ac.uk
Unicorn Theatre
17 June - We Planted Some Sunflowers, Organised, Midnight at the Hotel Beauregard
18 June – Park High School Musical, Some Machine, Beneath the Lights
Box Office: 020 7645 0560
www.unicorntheatre.com
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News Release Issued 18 May 2010
THE BIG ROOM
Established to support the professional development needs of playwrights, The Big Room offers bespoke
developmental provision on the playwrights‟ terms. It is a resource that concentrates a deep and loyal
commitment to professional playwrights of considerable promise or exceptional talent, with the ultimate aim
of enabling Britain‟s best new talent to significantly develop their art.
Combining resources such as writing space, rehearsal space and actors with uniquely brokered cross-discipline
collaborations and ambitious writing assignments, The Big Room is a truly innovative model in playwrightdriven professional development.
The Big Room was developed in consultation with focus groups representing a cross-section of the
professional playwriting community, from whom Paines Plough counselled opinion on the best ways to support
playwrights in developing their craft to professional ends.
PAINES PLOUGH ASSOCIATE COMPANY SCHEME
Paines Plough‟s Associate Company Scheme seeks out the UK‟s most exciting new theatre companies engaged
with the production of new plays and the development of playwrights and offers them mentorship, support,
advice and advocacy.
Through the scheme Paines Plough aims to nurture the next generation of new writing production companies,
offering its specific expertise within the fields of running a small non-build-based company, touring new plays
and developing playwrights to those companies or collectives of considerable promise.
Paines Plough is proud to consider it one of the company‟s key roles as an industry-leading new writing
touring company to nurture entrepreneurial collectives of exceptional young theatre artists with the ultimate
aim of enabling more productions of extraordinary new plays across the UK.
Paines Plough has initially identified three companies that have the ambition, vision and tenacity to define
the future of the new writing landscape and whom it will be supporting and mentoring throughout its 2010
Programme.
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Forward Theatre Project
Forward Theatre Project's aim is to re-invigorate the relationship between emerging theatre artists
and regional theatres and to create a community amongst peers. The company identifies a
disproportionate amount of theatre-makers in London and a limited number of opportunities for
developing artists to work across the country due to the financial and cultural pressures of an
incredibly competitive industry. The company is led by Charlotte Bennett and consists of 25 emerging
theatre directors, writers and designers.
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Inner City
Inner City Theatre gives new voices to Urban London through stories and story-telling techniques that
are rich, vibrant and energetic – but which rarely find their place in mainstream culture practice. The
company produces new shows for new audiences introducing plays that explore the many faces of the
Urban British experience that has been mis-represented in theatre. The focus will be on embracing
and celebrating inner-city characters and stories. The company is led by Stef O‟Driscoll and Arinze
Kene.
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Pieces Productions
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News Release Issued 18 May 2010
Pieces Productions is committed to finding and producing astonishing but overlooked new plays. It has
been established in order to allow a new wave of work to be seen on British stages that would
otherwise have fallen through the gaps between existing company‟s tastes and remits. The company
aims to support new contemporary writers whose plays are politically and socially engaged,
adventurous in form and risk-taking in their reluctance to be pinned down by convention. Pieces
Productions‟ emphasis is the highest quality of writing, the most thorough direction, with the highest
respect for the text, and the best acting in the country - important stories and difficult drama. The
company is led by Clare Lizzimore and David Watson.
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News Release Issued 18 May 2010
NOTES TO EDITORS
ABOUT PAINES PLOUGH
Paines Plough was founded in 1974 to tour new writing. It was named after the beer its founders were
drinking (Paines bitter) and the pub in which they were drinking it (The Plough) at the moment the company
was conceived.
Over the past 36 years, Paines Plough has established a national and international reputation as a leading new
writing company producing work by a wide range of playwrights across the UK and abroad. Collaboration with
other companies and theatres is an integral feature of the company‟s work. In addition to the production of
new plays, the company works with writers to help them develop their craft.
Founder John Adams handed the Artistic Directorship to John Chapman in 1982. Pip Broughton succeeded in
1985, followed by Anna Furse (1990), Penny Ciniewicz (1994) and Vicky Featherstone (1997). Roxana Silbert,
became the seventh Artistic Director in 2005.
James Grieve and George Perrin have been the Artistic Directors since 1 February 2010.
Paines Plough:
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is the UK‟s national theatre of new plays - it is local to its audience
produces plays and helps playwrights develop as artists
produces plays of immediate importance that are unique in their theatrical expression
is a home for playwrights - playwrights are at the heart of everything the company does
is a collaborator - Paines Plough never works alone
holds an unflinching commitment to doing as much work, in as many places, as often as possible,
unrestrained by existing models of production and touring
JAMES GRIEVE
James Grieve is co-Artistic Director of Paines Plough. He was formerly co-founder and Artistic Director of nabokov
for 10 years and Associate Director of the Bush Theatre.
His directing credits include The Whisky Taster by James Graham, St Petersburg by Declan Feenan and
Psychogeography by Lucy Kirkwood (all for The Bush), Artefacts by Mike Bartlett (nabokov/The Bush, UK Tour &
Off-Broadway), Kitchen, Bedtime for Bastards and Nikolina by Van Badham (nabokov), Old Street by Patrick Marber
(The nabokov Arts Club), The List by David Eldridge (Arcola), Country Music by Simon Stephens (Royal Welsh
College of Music and Drama), Bizarre Love Triangle by Duncan Macmillan (Theatre 503).
Grieve has also directed comedians and poets including Isy Suttie, Simon Brodkin, Luke Wright and Aisle16.
GEORGE PERRIN
George Perrin is co-Artistic Director of Paines Plough. He was formerly co-founder and Artistic Director of nabokov
for 10 years and Trainee Associate Director of Paines Plough and Watford Palace Theatre.
His recent directing credits include Seawall by Simon Stephens (The Bush), Rabbit Faced Story Soup by Laura Solon
(Edinburgh Festival Fringe).
As Artistic Director of nabokov, directing credits include 2nd May 1997 by Jack Thorne (nabokov/The Bush), Is
Everyone OK? by Joel Horwood (National Tour), Every Brilliant Thing and Crunch by Duncan Macmillan (The nabokov
Arts Club/Latitude Festival), Public Displays of Affection by Joel Horwood (Latitude Festival), Terre Haute by
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News Release Issued 18 May 2010
Edmund White (Off-Broadway/Trafalgar Studios/UK Tour/Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Festival Fringe) and Camarilla
by Van Badham (Old Red Lion/Edinburgh Festival Fringe).
As Trainee Associate Director of Paines Plough, directing credits include House of Agnes by Levi David Addai (Oval
House), The Dirt Under the Carpet by Rona Munro, Crazy Love by Che Walker (both Oran Mor Glasgow/Shunt Vaults
London), My Little Heart Dropped in Coffee by Duncan Macmillan and Babies by Katie Douglas (Young Vic, Wild
Lunch).
For further information, please contact: Kate Morley at Blueprint PR / 07970 465 648 /
[email protected]
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