Paines Plough Blog

We’re super excited to announce our full Programme 2012 today.

We’re presenting 11 productions in 44 places across the country from Edinburgh to The Isle of Wight.

Some stuff you already know about, like Matt Hartley‘s SIXTY FIVE MILES which we co-produced earlier in the year with our friends at Hull Truck, and the two shows we have currently running in London – Mike Bartlett‘s LOVE, LOVE, LOVE at The Royal Court and Kate Tempest’s WASTED at The Roundhouse.

In addition we’ve lined up some real treats for you, wherever you live. WASTED continues its tour to festivals in Brighton and York. There’s a national tour of our Manchester International Festival smash hit soul opera THE 8TH by Paul Heaton & Che Walker culminating with a very special performance at The Latitude Festival. Simon Stephens’ LONDON opens its tour at Salisbury Playhouse in a co-production with both Salisbury and Live Theatre, Newcastle.

For the first time in three years, we’re presenting a season of work across London, all of which has premiered outside the capital. Love, Love, Love is currently running at the Royal Court. Wasted visits the Roundhouse. The 8th opens its tour at The Barbican. And we’re thrilled to be bringing our Roundabout Season to to town in the Autumn. Three new plays by Duncan Macmillan, Nick Payne and Penelope Skinner will be presented in our own purpose built portable in-the-round Roundabout auditorium at Shoreditch Town Hall.

Also we’re bringing back our 2009 hit GOOD WITH PEOPLE by David Harrower for The Edinburgh Festival. A new series of Come to Where I’m From will include playwrights from Brighton, Cheltenham, Chipping Norton and the Isle Of Wight; and we’re delighted to again be working with the students at Rose Bruford College on Sean Buckley’s SMITHEREENS.

Here’s a note from James & George:

“We’re hugely proud to announce our third annual programme of work as Paines Plough’s Artistic Directors.

“Our passion for new plays continues to grow thanks to the extraordinary playwrights that lie at the heart of our company. This year we’re presenting work by a huge range of writers, from Olivier Award winners to the stars of the future.writers who between them have won 2 Oliviers, 3 George Devine Awards, 2 Bruntwood Awards and a host of other accolades, whilst continuing to identify and support the stars of the future.

“We believe everyone should have the chance to see outstanding new plays, no matter where they live, so our commitment to national touring deepens this year with visits to over 40 different UK villages, towns and cities. We’re piloting new touring circuits The Local, Neighbourhood and Campus to make sure our unique brand of new plays reach every corner of the UK.

“After two years working outside the capital, we’ve been overwhelmed by the demand for our work to be seen in London. In response we’ve put together a London Season of productions, all of which have already been seen on tour. In typical Paines Plough style they’re spread right across the city so audiences can experience the work in their local theatre – whether that’s Shoreditch Town Hall, the Barbican, the Royal Court, the Roundhouse or the Albany, amongst others.

“As ever, we’re working in partnership across the programme, and are delighted to be working with old friends as well as new – including the National Theatre, Manchester International Festival, the Roundhouse, Birmingham Rep, Sheffield Theatres, Latitude Festival, National Student Drama Festival, Salisbury Playhouse and Live Theatre Newcastle.

“With these partners, we’re presenting astounding new plays by world class playwrights in places nationwide for people everywhere. We’re priveleged and excited to do so, and look forward to welcoming people to a Paines Plough show in their local theatre.”

So there you have it: Programme 2012. We hope you’re as excited by it as we are.

We were all very excited at PP HQ to see the première of Nick Payne‘s Lay Down Your Cross directed by Claire Lizzimore at the Hampstead Theatre Downstairs.

It reunites the brilliant writer-director team behind One Day When We Were Young which was part of our Roundabout Season 2011, a co-production with Sheffield Theatres. It’s an incredibly moving play which highlights the nuances of human grief to devastating effect.

The show runs only until Saturday 24th March so click here to book now. Hope you enjoy the show as much as we did!

As the last one standing in the PP office at 5pm on the day before Christmas eve I thought I’d say one last goodbye to 2011 with a pictoral journey through Paines Plough’s Programme 2011.

Over the past 12 months more than 24,000 people saw one of 11 new plays by 15 different playwrights in one of 39 different places across the UK. Thank you to everyone who contributed, came, saw, enjoyed and supported – we hope to see you in your local theatre in 2012.

It’s nearly Christmas, and we’ve reached the end of another fabulous year at Paines Plough.

Programme 2011 is now complete and we’ve had a brilliant time over the year, working with 15 playwrights, and touring 11 productions to 39 places where 24,868 of you have come to see one of our shows. Thank you to everyone who joined us as we made our way around the UK, we hope you’ve enjoyed our shows.

Here’s a quick round-up of Programme 2011:

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE

We started the year with our co-producers Drum Theatre, Plymouth on our spring tour of Mike Bartlett’s LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, which we are delighted won the award for Best New Play at the 2011 Theatre Awards UK last month, and has been shortlisted for Best Regional Production in the upcoming Whatsonstage Awards.

Here are some of the reviews from the tour:

“Bang-on-the-money new play… required viewing.”
★★★★★ The Telegraph

“Devastating precision… peppered with terrific lines and big laughs”
★★★★ The Guardian

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE will return in Programme 2012 in a brand new production at the Royal Court in April. You can book tickets here.

Read the LOVE, LOVE, LOVE blog here.

TINY VOLCANOES

We then returned to the Liverpool Everyman with our co-production of Laurence Wilson’s TINY VOLCANOES, before taking the show on the road for its second national tour.

Here’s what some of you said about the show:

“Wild and exciting, terribly funny”
Audience member, Trowbridge

“Excellent, thoughtful, great performance, please come back to Folkestone”
Audience member, Folkestone

“Very engaging, challenging and entertaining”
Audience member, Harrogate

Read the TINY VOLCANOES blog here.

THE 8TH

In July we hit festival season, and collaborated with Manchester International Festival on THE 8TH by Paul Heaton and Ché Walker, which played for three nights at The Pavilion Theatre and starred Reg E Cathey.

Have a look at some production shots from the show.

Read THE 8TH blog here.

WASTED

Later in July we braved the rain and took to the muddy fields of the Latitude Festival in Suffolk, where we premiered WASTED by Kate Tempest alongside our co-producers Birmingham Repertory Theatre and The Roundhouse, and our friends at NSDF.

We’re touring WASTED in spring 2012 and will be announcing dates in the new year. Keep an eye on our website for updates, and in the mean time check out our production shots from Latitude here, and watch our online trailer here.

Read the WASTED blog here.

A PLAY, A PIE AND A PINT

The second half of the year saw us tour three new plays in co-production with Òran Mór in Glasgow, in our A Play, A Pie and A Pint season. We opened the season with DIG by Katie Douglas, which was followed by YOU CANNOT GO FORWARD FROM WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW by David Watson, and JUICY FRUITS by Leo Butler.

Here are some reviews on each of the plays:

DIG
“Devastatingly effective”
★★★★ Edinburgh Evening News

YOU CANNOT GO FORWARD FROM WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW
“Funny, intelligent, observant”
★★★★ Edinburgh Guide

JUICY FRUITS
“Brilliantly witty, acerbic and dark…”
★★★★ The Public Reviews

Read the A PLAY, A PIE AND A PINT blog here.

THE ROUNDABOUT SEASON

In October, we opened the first ever Roundabout Season in partnership with Sheffield Theatres. The season consisted of three new plays, performed by an ensemble cast in our prototype Roundabout Auditorium which lived in the Crucible Studio for two months. We opened the season with ONE DAY WHEN WE WERE YOUNG by Nick Payne, followed by LUNGS by Duncan Macmillan and THE SOUND OF HEAVY RAIN by Penelope Skinner.

Here are some Tweets about each of the plays:

@MatthewDPlant: @painesplough @crucibletheatre #OneDayWhenWeWereYoung: stunningly emotive/engaging. Original/ innovative scene changes with costume. BRILL.

@lyngardner: Duncan Macmillan’s Lungs at Sheffield Crucible is fab. Edgy, anxious, very funny, horribly honest and completely now. #stage

@Cory_face: Enjoyed ‘The Sound of Heavy Rain’ by @painesplough + @crucibletheatre brave but silly, consciously stylised and dramatically justified. See!

You can watch a film about The Roundabout Auditorium here, or read more here.

Read the Roundabout blog here.

COME TO WHERE I’M FROM

To close Programme 2011, we staged COME TO WHERE I’M FROM : JERSEY with playwrights Ben Evans, Leon Fleming, Martha MacDonald, Hannah Patterson and Colin Scott performing their own 15 minute pieces inspired by the place they grew up. The event took place at the Jersey Opera House and was part of The Big Room, and organised by the Jersey Arts Trust.

You will soon be able to hear podcasts of the plays on our website. In the mean time, have a listen to some of the podcasts from COME TO WHERE I’M FROM 2010 here.

Read the COME TO WHERE I’M FROM blog here.

So that was the year that was. We’ve had a ball. Bring on 2012.

If you saw any of our shows this year, please post a comment and let us know what you thought.

It’s been a busy Autumn for Paines Plough, with shows on in Sheffield, Glasgow, Manchester and Coventry simultaneously but despite our team being split all over the country we’ve still managed to catch plenty of theatre all over the shop and the festive period is looking pretty good for our culture calendar too…

James and I caught Tom Wells’ brilliant new play The Kitchen Sink at the Bush on press night.  It’s selling out but the run has been extended til 23^rd Dec, so there’s still chance to catch this extraordinary new play.

Claire and Hanna loved April de Angelis’ JUMPY at the Royal Court, Tara caught Polar Bear’s OLD ME at the Roundhouse and we all went on a PP office social to see OFFICE PARTY at the Pleasance which was an absolute hoot!

We were big fans of Michael Sheen’s HAMLET at the Young Vic, Jez Butterworth’s JERUSALEM (it just gets better…) at the Apollo, BLACKBERRY TROUT FACE by the superb Laurence Wilson (who wrote TINY VOLCANOES which we toured earlier this year), and ONE MAN TWO GUVNORS by Richard Bean at the Adelphi.

We’re very excited about seeing COMEDY OF ERRORS with Lenny Henry and directed by Dominic Cooke at the National, I’m off to see Michael Grandage’s last show at the helm of the Donmar- RICHARD II with Eddie Redmayne at the weekend and James saw Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin’s hit adaptation of MATILDA at the Cambridge Theatre and can still be found humming the songs around the office…

Last week Claire and Tara headed up to Sheffield (quickly becoming our second home) to see the Crucible’s revival of Sondheim’s COMPANY with Daniel Evans and Samantha Spiro which was brilliantly entertaining! And speaking of Sheffield we had a great time there two weeks ago when the whole team got together to see our ROUNDABOUT season; Nick Payne’s ONE DAY WHEN WE WERE YOUNG, Duncan Macmillan’s LUNGS and THE SOUND OF HEAVY RAIN by Penelope Skinner.

So what are we seeing over Christmas? Our panto withdrawal from last year will be soothed by trips to ALADDIN at the Lyric Hammersmith and SLEEPING BEAUTY at Sheffield’s Lyceum. We’ll be at the National next week for Daniel Kitson’s IT’S ALWAYS RIGHT NOW, UNTIL IT’S LATER which I’ve been dying to see since it debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe back in 2010. Claire’s off to see Matthew Bourne’s NUTCRACKER at Sadler’s Wells on Tuesday and Tara will be going to Kurt Weill’s MAGICAL NIGHT at the Royal Opera House later this week. Other treats in store are Reuben Johnson’s THE PROPOSAL produced by exciting young company Fiddy West Productions at Theatre 503, Joe Penhall’s HAUNTED CHILD at the Royal Court and Dawn King’s FOXFINDER at The Finborough.

Wowzer, there’s a whole lot of theatre for you.

What have you been seeing? Any top tips for theatre trips over Christmas?

We’re shutting up shop at PP HQ today and heading north en masse to Sheffield for the first of our Roundabout Season three-show days.

Our season in Sheffield culminates with Nick Payne’s ONE DAY WHEN WE WERE YOUNG and Duncan Macmillan’s LUNGS re-entering the fray alongside Penelope Skinner’s currently running THE SOUND OF HEAVY RAIN.

You can catch all three shows today and on Saturday at 3pm, 5:30pm and 8pm with enough time in between for a pint and a bite to eat in Crucible Corner.

We’re very excited about seeing our immensely talented acting ensemble pushing themselves to the limit as they play an array of different characters with barely time to draw breath in between. Maia Alexander and Andrew Sheridan star in ONE DAY WHEN WE WERE YOUNG, Alistair Cope and Kate O’Flynn star in LUNGS, and then all four are embroiled in the search for missing Foxie O’Hara in the finale – THE SOUND OF HEAVY RAIN.

We’re delighted to welcome lots of friends of PP to Sheffield today and on Saturday to see the season out with the whole shebang on show inside seven hours.

Bring. It. On.

Rehearsals are well underway for ONE DAY WHEN WE WERE YOUNG. We’re settled here, enjoying Sheffield and the unseasonable warmth. (who says it’s grim up?)

We’ve worked through the play a few times, layering up detail and making small changes to the script. It’s a great help to have Nick Payne with us to tailor the play to the demands of the Roundabout. Where the script asks for a window, our challenge in the round is either to plonk a window in the set (undesirable) suggest the window somehow (possible) or find another way of staging the moment (playful). The writer can help supply the director with a great solution – collaboration in the room is crucial.

Paines Plough's rehearsal room... *cough* honest...

We’re gearing up to leave our rehearsal room and get into the theatre for our tech week. Not only are we nearing the point at which theatre lights and full sound boosts the production but the Roundabout itself is being built. We can’t wait to have a play in the space…

1-A slots into 2-D? ... What do you mean THERE AREN'T ENOUGH SCREWS?

And until we start running technical rehearsals in the space, we keep on practising…

The best way to get to Carnegie Hall? (answers on a postcard)

PS – Zooby’s is the current favourite for coffee. More suggestions please…

Nick’s play is set over a period of sixty years, and in order to try to get a sense of what the two characters would have seen in their lifetime, we spent a day at the Imperial War museum, the National Army museum, and then the V&A. It was invaluable to see the sheer scope of change over time. Colours change as materials change – wood and stone gives way to garish technicolour plastic. Preciousness gives way to cheap commercialism. Over the day we found two particularly contrasting slogans: “To dress extravagantly in war time is worse than bad form it is unpatriotic” – and later “I shop therefore I am”.

After a week in London, we moved rehearsals from Paines Plough’s rehearsal space to Sheffield Crucible. We’re all excited at the prospect of performing ONE DAY WHEN WE WERE YOUNG at Sheffield in the Roundabout space. The rehearsal facilities are excellent, and we’re helped by props and furniture appearing continuously, thanks to our great Stage Management team and designer Lucy Osborne, allowing us to create the hotel room in Bath in the 1940s. We’ve been given a very warm welcome by the theatre, its staff, and artistic director Daniel Evans who kindly took the time to pop his head into our room whilst we were busy experimenting with 1940s period hairstyles for our actors. Everybody in our team is happy in their digs, keen to explore the city, and we’re all looking forward to seeing Sheffield’s production of OTHELLO tomorrow night.

PS challenge is on to find a great cup of strong coffee in the morning… suggestions very welcome for independent coffee shops…

We’re thrilled to announce that the tenth and final playwright to feature as part of our programme 2011 is the superb Leo Butler. Leo wrote an exquisite short play as part of our 2010 project COME TO WHERE I’M FROM which you can listen to here.

Leo is joining Katie Douglas and David Watson to write a brand new play as part of our season of co-productions with Oran Mor in Glasgow.

Leo’s other plays include REDUNDANT, I’LL BE THE DEVIL and the searingly brutal FACES IN THE CROWD which tore apart the Royal Court Upstairs in 2008, in a scorching production by Clare Lizzimore. Clare is an extraordinary director, and we’re very excited to announce that she is also joining the Paines Plough fold this year, to helm Nick Payne’s play One Day When We Were Young.

As well as having directed new plays for the Royal Court Theatre, Clean Break, Theatre 503 and Hampstead Theatre (where she is an Associate Director), Clare is the Artistic Director of one of Paines Plough’s Associate Companies, Pieces Productions, for whom she directed David Watson’s devastating play PIECES OF VINCENT at the Arcola Theatre last year.

If you want to find out when and where you can see Leo and Clare’s work with us this year have a look at our programme brochure here, keep checking this blog or follow us on twitter.