Paines Plough Announces Full 2016 Programme

Artistic Directors of Paines Plough James Grieve and George Perrin today announced the company's full Programme 2016.

James Grieve and George Perrin said today: "We're raring to hit the road to the four corners of the UK with this cracking programme of new plays from some of the most exciting writers around. Roundabout will pop-up across the country with comedies from Luke Norris and Alan Harris, a superhero tale for children from Katie Douglas and a host of events from international visiting companies and local community groups, bringing a festival feel to every place it visits. We're honoured to be working with talents as innovative as Sabrina Mahfouz - whose UK Garage musical is theatre you can rave to - and Tom Wells whose heart-warming new play will delight fans of his previous Paines Plough hit Jumpers For Goalposts. With Every Brilliant Thing returning to the UK after an international tour, London stories in Come To Where I'm From and new plays from Elinor Cook, Nathan Bryon, Lucy Gillespie, there's a play for everyone, everywhere in Programme 2016."

Paines Plough presents
ROUNDABOUT

2016 sees the return of Roundabout, Paines Plough's award-winning portable in-the-round auditorium. The Roundabout season will preview from 19 - 24 July at Hackney Showroom in London before taking up residency once again at Summerhall during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 4 - 29 August.

In rep will be three World Premieres:

A Paines Plough, Sherman Cymru and Theatr Clwyd production
Love, Lies and Taxidermy
By Alan Harris

This is a boy meets girl story. Son of a Polish taxidermist meets daughter of a failing ice cream salesman. At a medical research facility in Merthyr Tydfil. First date in Tesco and things are going well.

But it's difficult to fall in love when your parents need saving from themselves, their weird hobbies and the threat of a prison sentence.

An offbeat love story about Mr. Tutti Frutti, a stuffed owl and the struggle to fit in from writer Alan Harris (BBC Radio 4, National Theatre Wales, Sherman Cymru).

A Paines Plough production
Growth
By Luke Norris

"That? That's. I mean.

Yeah.

It's a lump in a bag of lumps.

I mean.

It's normal."

Tobes is young, free and having a ball. Off.

He's successfully ignored his lump for two years but it's starting to get in the way. Cramping his style and worse than that - affecting his sex life. So now there are pants to be dropped, and decisions to be made... It's a real ball ache.

Growth is a comedy about growing up and manning up from rising star Luke Norris (So Here We Are, Royal Exchange; Goodbye To All That, Royal Court).

A Paines Plough and Half Moon production
I Got Superpowers For My Birthday
By Katie Douglas

Ethan, William and Fiona are about as different as three almost-teens can be. The only thing they have in common is that tomorrow is their birthday. And they've just discovered they have superpowers.

Which is lucky because someone needs to protect the world from The Darkness. An evil overlord with plans to turn everything to ice.

Join our three heroes on an epic quest to save the planet in this brand new play for ages 7+ from award winning writer Katie Douglas.

Roundabout will again host a programme of visiting companies at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and on tour, and see the return of EARLIER / LATER, Paines Plough's early morning and late night series of one-off shows, events, workshops and more.

Following the run in Hackney and Edinburgh, Roundabout will tour to Salford, Cornwall, Margate, Lincoln, Kendal, Barnsley, Stoke and Luton.

***

A Paines Plough and Live Theatre production
Broken Biscuits
By Tom Wells

In October 2016, Paines Plough and Live Theatre Newcastle will premiere Broken Biscuits a new production written by Tom Wells. The production is a very funny and heart-warming coming-of-age story about three teenagers who decide to form a band. The production will premiere at Live Theatre in Autumn 2016 before embarking on a UK tour. Full tour dates and casting for Broken Biscuits will be announced in due course.

***

A Paines Plough and Latitude Festival production
With A Little Bit of Luck
By Sabrina Mahufou

Following the current UK tour Sabrina Mahufouz's play-come-gig With A Little Bit of Luck will come to The Roundhouse from 14-18 June as part of The Last Word Festival. Originally commissioned for a festival audience, With A Little Bit Of Luck premiered to standing ovations at Latitude Festival in 2015. The production features Seroca Davis as Nadia alongside the vocal talents of Martyna Baker and musician Gabriel Benn, directed by Stef O'Driscoll.

Produced by Paines Plough and Latitude Festival, With A Little Bit of Luck is rhythmically underscored by a live mix of old school UK Garage as award-winning writer Sabrina Mahfouz explores the legacy of a cultural movement that defined the hopes of a generation.

***

A Paines Plough and Pentabus Theatre Company production
Every Brilliant Thing
By Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe

Following an international tour, the hugely acclaimed Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe will embark on its third nationwide tour in autumn 2016. A play about depression and the lengths we go to for those we love which has won plaudits around the world, Every Brilliant Thing will return to the UK in September visiting Maidstone, Alton, Worthing, Corsham, Aldershot, Preston, Berwick, Selby, Taunton, Isle of Wight, Dorchester, Chichester, Lincoln and Otley.

***

A Paines Plough and Tamasha production
Come To Where I'm From: London

Since 2010, Paines Plough's nationwide project Come To Where I'm From has seen more than 100 playwrights across the UK perform pieces in and about the places which have shaped them. From 6 - 12 June Paines Plough will partner with new writing theatre company Tamasha to present Come To Where I'm From: London in which writers from across London will perform plays about their area in a series of live events across the city. The full programme of playwrights and participating venues will be announced in due course.

ENDS

For further information about Paines Plough please contact
Sara Sherwood at The Corner Shop PR: sara@thecornershoppr.com / 0207 831 7657

For further information on Paines Plough's Roundabout Edinburgh season please contact
Susie Gray at The Corner Shop PR: susie@thecornershoppr.com

NOTES TO EDITORS

ABOUT PAINES PLOUGH

Paines Plough is the UK's national theatre of new plays. The company commissions and produces the best playwrights and tours their plays far and wide. Whether you're in Liverpool or Lyme Regis, Scarborough or Southampton, a Paines Plough show is coming to a theatre near you soon.

Paines Plough was formed in 1974 over a pint of Paines bitter in the Plough pub. Since then they've produced more than 130 new productions by world renowned playwrights like Stephen Jeffreys, Abi Morgan, Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill, Dennis Kelly and Mike Bartlett.

The Programme in 2015 saw 12 productions by the nation's finest writers touring to 84 places from Cornwall to the Orkney Islands; in village halls and Off-Broadway, at music festivals and student unions, online and on radio, and in their own pop-up theatre Roundabout.

Paines Plough Limited is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity.
Registered Company no: 1165130
Registered Charity no: 267523

www.painesplough.com
@PainesPlough
www.facebook.com/painesploughHQ

www.roundaboutpp.com
#RoundaboutPP

ABOUT HALF MOON

Half Moon is the UK's leading small-scale young people's venue and touring company, with the local community at the heart of its ethos. Half Moon is a local organisation with a national remit, committed to supporting artists and young people at every stage of their creative development. Working from their base in East London, Half Moon specialise in new writing and artform development, acting as a gateway organisation that provides pathways for progression and experimentation. Their wide-ranging programme reaches nearly 50,000 people annually and engages those who are often excluded from arts activity. Their activity includes seasons of professional plays for young audiences, national touring productions and an extensive creative learning programme, including seven youth theatres. This is Half Moon's second co-production with Paines Plough, having preciously collaborated on Our Teacher's A Troll in 2014 and 2015. Half Moon is a National Portfolio Organisation of Arts Council England and receives regular funding from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

www.halfmoon.org.uk

ABOUT LATITUDE

Celebrating the biggest names in comedy, theatre, dance, film, cabaret, literature and performance, Latitude, the UK's finest multi-arts festival now approaches its eleventh edition. Founded in 2006, Latitude celebrates the very best artists and companies, both emerging and established, across myriad genres. Latitude is proud to have won the Line Up Of The Year at the UK Festival Awards 2015, the festival's 10th anniversary year.

Taking place from Thursday 14th to Sunday 17th July 2016 in the stunning grounds of Henham Park, Suffolk, Latitude 2016 promises an unrivalled breadth, depth and quality of arts programming, offering a spectacular choice of major shows, star acts and ground-breaking commissioned works

ABOUT LIVE THEATRE

Live Theatre is recognised as one of the great new writing theatres on the international stage.

Based in Newcastle upon Tyne it is also deeply rooted in its local community.

Live Theatre produces work as varied and diverse as the audiences it engages with. As well as championing the art of writing for stage by producing and presenting new plays, Live Theatre uses theatre to unlock the potential of young people and finds, nurtures and trains creative talent. Through its creative enterprises it is also developing new models of business sustainability and growth.

www.live.org.uk

For tickets and information call (0191) 232 1232

Live Theatre, Broad Chare, Quayside, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 3DQ

ABOUT PENTABUS

Pentabus are the nation's rural theatre company.

Their mission is to develop and produce quality new plays to village halls and theatres, telling stories with local relevance and national impact. They believe that the best new plays are made in the countryside.

"The excellent touring company Pentabus" - The Guardian

Since 1974 Pentabus have produced 150 new plays, supported 100 playwrights and reached over half a million audience members. They've won awards, pioneered live-streaming and developed a ground-breaking initiative to nurture young writers from rural backgrounds.

Their plans for the future will see them tour further than ever before, work with new and established playwrights, extend their young writers programme and continue to push at the boundaries of what theatre can be.

Pentabus is a registered charity (number 287909). Pentabus rely on the generosity of their donors, small and large, to help them to make brilliant new theatre.

www.pentabus.co.uk
Twitter: @pentabustheatre
Facebook: Pentabus Theatre

ABOUT SHERMAN CYMRU

Sherman Cymru makes excellent work with eclectic appeal, champions Welsh artists, and promotes new Welsh work nationally and internationally.

We make and curate exciting theatre for audiences. We develop and nurture the work of Welsh and Wales based artists. We generate opportunities for the citizens of Cardiff to connect with theatre through relevant, inspiring, visionary engagement.

Sherman Cymru is a leading producing house in Wales, working in both Welsh and English, with a particular remit for the development and presentation of new writing. We also run a significant outreach and participation programme.

www.shermancymru.co.uk

ABOUT THEATR CLYWD

Theatr Clwyd is one of the foremost theatres in Wales - a beacon of excellence looking across to the Clwydian Hills yet only forty minutes from Liverpool. Since 1976 it has been a much-loved home for its local community and an important centre for the wider artistic community, producing world class theatre from new plays to classic revivals. It has three theatres, a cinema, cafe, bar and three art galleries and, alongside its own shows, offers a rich and varied programme of visual arts, film, theatre, music and comedy. Theatr Clwyd also creates award-winning work for and with young people and Scattered, a new play touring schools, recently played in the Good Chance Theatre at the refugee camp in Calais.

Playing to over 200,000 people a year, Theatr Clwyd was voted Most Welcoming Theatre in Wales in 2015.

"Of course regional theatre should be reviewed on its own terms not by comparison with London, but Theatr Clwyd measures up in every way." Mark Shenton

ABOUT TAMASHA

Tamasha is Britain's foremost touring theatre company producing new plays inspired by the diversity of a globalised world. Tamasha's work places the voices of emerging and established artists from culturally diverse backgrounds centre stage. Tamasha present vital high quality plays from seldom-heard voices, facilitate theatre makers to engage creatively with communities and audiences, and train theatre artists and young people through Tamasha Developing Artists; a national artist development programme with a track record of providing high-quality professional training and tangible professional opportunities for emerging and established theatre artists throughout their careers.

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