Paines Plough Blog

We’ve just uploaded loads of publicity, rehearsal and productions shots of WASTED by Kate Tempest to our Flickr photostream. Check them out:

Production shots

Rehearsal shots

Publicity shots

Big shout out to the briliant photographers who took them – Elyse Marks, Richard Davenport, Gavin Mitchell and our very own Mathy & Fran.

Latitude Loves Theatre

Damp and debilitated, bruised but buzzing, we returned to PP HQ on Tuesday this week after another epic and brilliant Latitude Festival. No amount of rain and mud could dampen our spirits as we premièred Kate Tempest’s WASTED on Friday and Sunday night.

A WASTED production meeting gets under way in the performer's bar

Our first performance of the show at 11:20pm on Friday was packed to the rafters with many having queued for more than half an hour to get into the tent. There was a real party atmosphere pre-show with an estimated 700-odd punters crammed in to the first ever performance of Kate’s first ever play.

With a smaller but more concentrated line-up in this year’s theatre arena, we were treated to some top notch work. The Lyric Hammersmith teamed up with Peepolykus and Spymonkey to commission Joel Horwood (the writer behind nabokov’s smash musical IT’S ABOUT TIME at last year’s festival) to give us an uproariously and irreverently hilarious take on JEKYLL AND HYDE. nabokov were back with a contemporary twist on CINDERELLA by Jack Thorne and Arthur Darvill that had the capacity crowd up on their feet from the off. We also saw and loved work by Theatre 503, Fuel, Clean Break, the National Theatre of Scotland and Eyebrow Productions, amongst others. And that was just in the theatre tent.

Here’s our team’s top picks of the weekend:

Claire (General Manager):

“This was not only my first Latitude, but my first festival so I was fairly unsure about what to expect from the weekend.  I loved the whole experience, from the diverse and exciting line up, to the soggy camping.  A couple of my favourite performances were INTENSIT I & SOLDIER A in the Poetry Arena and THE NAKED AND FAMOUS in the Word Arena.  I’ll definitely be going back to Latitude again.”

Gathering rain clouds weren't enough to keep us away from the Obelisk Arena

Hanna (Administrator):

“So with torrential rain washing me err ‘clean’ as I ate soggy chips and drank rain-diluted beer, anything under cover in the Theatre Arena (FORWARD THEATRE PROJECT, 1927), the Word Arena (FOALS, JAMES VINCENT MCMORROW, EVERYTHING EVERYTHING), Comedy Arena (DOC BROWN), Cabaret Arena (BOURGEOIS AND MAURICE) and the Poetry Arena (SOLDIER-A AND INTENSI-T, and the amazing KATE TEMPEST) were the highlights of my festival experience. Although I did brave the rain for SEASICK STEVE and Fuel’s ELECTRIC HOTEL, both of which were rather epic. Oh… and I LOVED the impromptu SOUND OF RUM gig beside a random tree on the Saturday night, followed by a dance at the embarrassingly spectacular GUILTY PLEASURES! …and let’s not forget all those infamous car park discos DJ’ed by our very own AD James Grieve until the sun had well and truly risen. Too many highlights to choose… can we do it all again please?!”

Guilty Pleasures rocking out the Comedy Arena after hours

George (Joint Artistic Director):

“With James assuming directing responsibilities this festival, I had the chance to get around quite a few of the music stages. I really spent a huge amount of time at the Sunrise Arena, enjoying sets by AARON WRIGHT (one of the collaborators on The 8th), FOSTER THE PEOPLE and TROPHY WIFE. JAMES BLAKE’s late night set on the Sunday was astounding”

Natasha (Production Assistant):

“Through the haze of my memory, I remember sheltering from the rain and discovering folk singer JAMES VINCENT MCMORROW; loving DOC BROWN rapping about Britain’s Olympic Dressage hopes in the Comedy tent; gazing at KATE TEMPEST turn the air electric at a midnight poetry reading; melting at David Bradley’s brilliant performance as both brow-beaten husband and shrewish Widow in ON THE HARMFUL EFFECTS OF TOBACCO/CAN CAUSE DEATH; and salivating at The Trailer Beach BBQ, where I had the Best. Hotdog. Ever.”

James (Joint Artistic Director):

“I’m biased, but KATE TEMPEST’s headline gig in the poetry tent on Saturday night was mind-blowingly good. The impromptu SOUND OF RUM set afterwards was a stroke of genius.”

James Blake playing live

Tara (Producer):

“I attended latitude for the fifth year in a row, and as always the people, programme and party did not disappoint.  Thursday night kicked off with a blast with nabokov’s reimagining of CINDERELLA; fantastic performances, energising music and witty lyrics plus with bonus of two circus performances representing the realistic meeting of Cinderella and Prince Charming.  Friday afternoon was a real highlight with the sun shining and listening to DEERHUNTER and CARIBOU (Word Arena) and SCHLOMO in the Theatre Tent.”

Chrissy (Trainee Producer):

“What a weekend it was! Well, my first time taking a show to Latitude so how can the highlight be anything other than our own WASTED, the amazing cast and creative team really pulled together to make something magical. I did have some fun too… a few of my highlights were the Lake Stage, Latitude’s new band stage where the SEA OF BEES were a real standout. Dancing all night with the lovely Hanna Streeter to THE FOALS in the Word Arena, an afternoon with SEASICK STEVE at the Obelisk and my first KATE TEMPEST poetry gig. And of course lots of laughing and dancing in the rain and the rising sun.”

Lizzie Watts performing WASTED (not literally)

There’s loads more about the journey we took from page to stage with our Latitude production of WASTED here. You can still listen to our Latitude playlist sampler here, featuring many of our team’s recommended bands from the festival. Meanwhile you can read a blog about our love of Latitude on the Guardian website, here. Plus there are loads more photos of our festival weekend on our Flickr page, here. Finally, tell us about your Latitude by leaving us a comment below.

Until next time, Latitude. You’ve left us exhausted, exhilarated, and begging for more.

With the company now excitedly making their way to Suffolk for this year’s Latitude Festival, we caught up with Associate Director, Stef O’Driscoll yesterday in the lead up to the final dress rehearsal of Kate Tempest’s WASTED…

“So its tech time and after taping up about 100 boxes with Cai Dyfan, Set designer, I managed to catch 5mins to write this: These last couple of days have seen all the elements come together and with James away in Galway looking after Love Love Love I decided to change the whole play! I jest, not at all, in fact the main focus for the last couple of days has been transferring the play to a bigger space and introducing video projections, soothing tones, big bass lines and boxes… lots of boxes.

It’s been great having Kate in the room, hearing her laughter and I personally cannot wait for Friday Night 11.20pm as this play is exactly what theatre needs!

Giles (Kwake), our composer, is setting up his drum kit and Tom Gibbons, is testing out his sounds, the video projection title page reads Paines Plough, Wasted by Kate Tempest and I already have goose pimples…… and as Angela Anson, our lighting designer, turns off the workers I am left with a final thought, in fact it’s my top festival tip, get yourself to Primark and buy some £9 waterproof trousers I hear the weather man predicts rain!”

We’re incredibly fortunate to have been taking work to the Latitude Festival Theatre Arena since its inception in 2006, first with our previous company nabokov (who are also back again this year) and most recently with Paines Plough. After Laurence Wilson’s incendiary TINY VOLCANOES fired up the 2010 festival, we’re back again this year with the debut play by explosive performance poet Kate Tempest. WASTED closes the bill on the Friday and Sunday nights of the festival this weekend.

So in the hope that readers of this blog snapped up tickets in time, we thought we’d offer our very own guide to a great Latitude, from what we can jointly remember of the last five years attending this exceptional festival.

Take risks on the new

Latitude programmers Melvin Benn and Tania Harrison are bold in their programming and have been incredibly astute over the past few years in the way they’ve brought relatively unknown acts to the heart of the festival, only for them to go on and become major stars. This year’s music line-up for example, is perhaps one of the bravest yet. A close listen reveals some incredibly exciting new talent taking prominent spots on big stages. Last week we posted our own top 13 bands not to miss along with samples of their work. You can still listen to it here.

Buy a festival programme

At £10 they’re not cheap, but the official festival programmes are beautifully put together and about the size of a small bible, crammed full of information about all of the acts at the festival. Most importantly, there’s a pull-out timetable at the back. Most venues fill up pretty quickly, so if there’s someone or something you simply refuse to miss out on, then get there a few shows early to be sure of a good seat.

Keep hold of your cup

In a concerted effort to be environmentally friendly, the festival uses renewable plastic pint pots. You put an initial £2 deposit down on them which allows you to keep them at the end if you wish. Every five or so cups features a unique Latitude branding for the enthusiasts out there. Just be careful not to lose your cup – entrepreneurial young things can be spotted scouring the site late on Sunday night for discarded cups, only to make a pretty penny when they return them all.

Hit the poetry tent

Latitude has one of the best collections of performance poets of any live event in the UK, spitting lyrics non-stop, for four solid days. If the words ‘poetry’ and ‘performance’ in quick succession make you think of cravats, foppishness and whimsy then you ain’t seen nothing. With the big laughs of comedy, the lyrical dexterity of verse and the drama of theatre, this lot are like three art-forms in one. Don’t take our word for it – see Kate Tempest, Luke Wright, Joel Stickley, John Osborne or Brigitte Aphrodite live for yourself and we defy you not to become a convert.

Keep your ear to the ground for previously unannounced special appearances

Tania and Melvin have a canny knack of throwing in last minute and wholly exclusive special appearances and events. Our favourites of the past few years have been an alarm-call Sunday lunchtime solo acoustic performance by Thom Yorke and a midnight masked ball in the forest.

Have a playlist ready for your very own car-park disco

With the main festival site closing down around 1am, its certainly worth having a good sequence of tracks on your iPod and finding someone with a decent car stereo. Open the doors, plug, play and dance til the sun comes up over your Volvo.

If there’s anything crucial we’ve missed let us know below. Otherwise, see you tomorrow in a field in Suffolk.

Check out this teaser trailer for WASTED by Kate Tempest, created by Mathy & Fran, who are designing visuals for the show.

WASTED opens at The Latitude Festival this weekend. You can catch it in the Theatre Tent at 11:20pm on Friday 15 July and 8:50pm on Sunday 17 July.

As you know Paines Plough are pitching up at this year’s Latitude Festival on 15 – 17 July.

Will you be there? Will you be in our show?

We are premiering Kate Tempest’s debut play WASTED in the theatre arena, which promises to be a dazzling display of lyricism and an explosion of sights and sounds. We have a fantastic cast of three but need a few more friendly faces to get the party started – and we mean that literally!

Kate’s play explores a day in the lives of three twenty somethings from South London, living life as they should but not as they want; finding solace in their friendship and escape in riotous raves….  Enter YOU stage right/left.

We need you to help us create the best party ever live on stage at Latitude, so if you will be at the festival and want to play a part by simply getting on that stage and dancing like nobody is watching, please contact Chrissy on traineeproducer@painesplough.com.

Please note we can’t offer you a ticket to the festival, or a fee, but we will give you a glow stick and our eternal gratitude. And you’ll get to rave it up in front of 600 people in a party to end all parties.

We’re having a ball at PP HQ rehearsing Kate Tempest’s amazing debut play WASTED, which opens at the Latitude Festival next Friday.

Kate tells the story of three lifelong friends  who vow to change their mundane lives for the better after a day-glo trip through the streets and raves of South London.

Kate’s come up with a fascinating form for the play, interspersing dialogue scenes with chorus sections in verse and blistering soliloquies. We’re loving the challenge of getting to grips with her extraordinary writing. The play is like a musical score – each line has a rhythm and cadence all of its own. There’s lots of rhyme, and wonderful sequences where alliteration and assonance become almost melodic. No matter how many times we rehearse a scene, we keep finding new rhythms and previously hidden internal rhymes. It’s technically very demanding, but a joy to work on, and when we hit the right notes it’s exhilarating.

Here’s a video of the cast Alexander Cobb, Ashley George and Lizzy Watts trying to get to grips with a particularly tricky chorus section on the roof of PP HQ:

Meanwhile our brilliant creative team is creating the world of the play. Designer Cai Dyfan has 140 cardboard boxes being delivered on Monday. Film-makers Mathy & Fran have a shoot tomorrow with the actors as they develop an exciting concept for visuals. Composer Kwake came in to rehearsals yesterday to play us some extracts from the stunning original score he is creating, which he will be performing live on stage at Latitude. And stage manager Harriet has been buying cans of White Lightning and an assortment of UV clubbing accessories.

There’s a whole night ahead of us
Ours for the befriending
And no matter what our brains beg of us
Our hearts are ripe for the tempting

It’s going to be epic.

Ashley George in rehearsals for WASTED

This July will see Paines Plough decamp, tents and all, to the Latitude Festival as well as flying further afield to two international festivals. Regulars at Latitude, this year the company return to premiere their new commission – Wasted – the debut play from celebrated poet and rapper Kate Tempest. In two firsts for Paines Plough, the company make their Manchester International Festival debut with the premiere of The 8th – a collaboration between Paul Heaton and Ché Walker; and Mike Bartlett’s critically acclaimed smash hit play Love, Love, Love plays its first international dates at the Galway Festival.

Artistic Directors James Grieve and George Perrin said this week, “We’re honoured to be taking work to three extraordinary and yet completely different festivals this month. We’ve had the privilege of working with Tania Harrison at Latitude since the festival began and have watched it flourish in the five years since. Co-commissioning with the Manchester International Festival is a thrilling partnership for us and testament, we hope, to Paines Plough’s profile as a partner in unique, playwright-focused collaborations. And after 114 performances and 22 weeks of touring throughout England and Scotland, Love, Love, Love makes its Irish debut as one of only two English companies at the prestigious Galway Arts Festival. It’s incredibly exciting to be bringing the work of three exceptional playwrights to these diverse festival audiences.”

Read the full Press Release.