This year, Paines Plough turns 50.

To celebrate, we announce a brand new show, and a new home in Coventry.

Since 1974 we’ve worked with over 500 playwrights and produced, commissioned or supported more than 400 plays.

We are turning 50 at a time where we remain one of the last subsidised new writing touring theatre companies in the UK. With programming priorities being forced to shift and costs increasing, the landscape for new writing is more challenging than it has ever been.

In this context, we’re proud to even be here to talk about a fiftieth year, and to continue to be an advocate, a voice and a thriving platform for writers and the future of new writing around the country.

This year will be about future-proofing our commitment to writers, who remain at the beating heart of everything we do. We can’t wait to find a new home at the glorious Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, where we will also preview our new show as a ‘see it first’ opportunity for Coventry audiences.

Our new show will be My Mother’s Funeral: The Show, a play by Kelly Jones, directed by Charlotte Bennett. Exploring the experience of being a benefit class artist and different approaches towards trauma stories, Jones’ new play asks us: if death is unifying, why are we not all afforded the same dignity? The show will preview at the Belgrade on 25-27 July, before opening at Roundabout at Edinburgh Fringe ahead of a UK tour. More info and tour dates to come…

We can’t wait to also welcome the return of last year’s runaway success Strategic Love Play at Soho Theatre, and continue with our Tour the Writer and writers-on-attachment activity; all of which supports new, bold, brilliant work to be created, just as the company has done in the last 50 years, and which we intend to do in the 50 years to come.

We will also launch our #50for50 fundraising campaign. #50for50 aims to raise £50,000 over the year to enable us to continue platforming, producing and touring ground-breaking new plays, and nurture the next generation of writers. You can donate to our fundraising campaign here: painesplough.com/50-for-50/ 

Thank you for being part of our journey, and we hope you’ll join us for the celebrations throughout the year.


My Mother’s Funeral: The Show
Written by Kelly Jones
A Paines Plough, Mercury Theatre, Belgrade Theatre, Landmark Theatres, and Royal & Derngate, Northampton co-production.
The commissioning of My Mother’s Funeral: The Show was enabled by a grant from the New Play Commission Scheme, a project set up by the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, UK Theatre and the Independent Theatre Council, and funded by Arts Council England, the Theatre Development Trust and donations from actors, directors, playwrights and producers.

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