Announcing our line-up for our 50th Anniversary Gala on 10 February 2025.

Celebrating 50 years of pioneering bold new writing, the evening will open with an exclusive world premiere short piece written by Paines Plough patron James Graham, performed by Monica Dolan as a rallying cry for theatre and new writing.

It will be followed by extracts from some of our past productions, performed by some incredible guests:

• Crave by Sarah Kane, featuring Thomas Coombes, Alfred Enoch, Siobhan McSweeney and Rebekah Murrell. Directed by the play’s original director Vicky Featherstone.
• After the End by Dennis Kelly, directed by Matthew Dunster and performed by television royalty, Meg Bellamy (Princess Kate in The Crown) and Hugh Skinner (Prince William in The Windsors)
• Love, Love, Love by Mike Bartlett, performed by Lesley Sharp, Iain Glen and Jessie Cave.
• Sea Wall by Simon Stephens, performed by Tom Sturridge (The Sandman), who received a Tony nomination for his performance in the Broadway production of Sea Wall in 2019.
• Hungry by Chris Bush, featuring Heather Agyepong (Shifters) and Sophie Melville (Cowbois)
• Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz by Nathan Queeley-Dennis, performed by Kola Bokinni (Ted Lasso).
• Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe.

We’ll also be presenting a filmed segment featuring Olivier Award-winning actor and playwright Amy Trigg, who will record a scene from Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me (winner of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting in 2021), in the venue where it all began for us as a company fifty years ago.

Guest hosts and appearances on the evening will also include Indhu Rubasingham (Artistic Director of the National Theatre), and playwrights James Graham, Roy Williams, Mark Ravenhill and Ryan Calais Cameron.

Click here to book your tickets for the 50th Anniversary Gala. Tickets start at £23.25.

As part of booking there is the option for a ‘Pay It Forward’ donation, which will go towards a ticket for an early-career writer who might not otherwise be able afford to attend. Stay tuned on our newsletter and our social media channels for details on the Pay It Forward tickets.

It’s an honour to announce this amazing line-up of plays and guests for our 50th Anniversary Gala. As a new writing company, it is in our DNA to always look ahead to what’s next: where’s the next tour stop? When’s the next workshop? What’s the next project? But for an evening, we’re allowing ourselves just one moment to reflect on Paines Plough’s incredible history, and to raise a glass to the many, many people and stories that have made their contribution to the fabric of British theatre, and to making our small but mighty company what it is today. We can’t wait to celebrate 50 years with this line-up, and to continue our unwavering mission to champion new writing as a priority for our stages.

My Mother’s Funeral: The Show by Kelly Jones deals with complex and difficult issues related to the death of a loved one, grieving, class, funerals, and funeral poverty.

We’ve compiled a list of mental health charities and support groups below, for anyone who has been affected by the issues raised in the play.

If you need immediate support, or would just like someone to chat to, Samaritans offer a 24/7 helpline across the UK – call 116123 for free.

If you prefer to text, the UK also has a free 24/7 service: just text SHOUT to 85258.

2024 was the 10^th birthday of our big beautiful geodesic dome Roundabout, and we’re so proud to have celebrated it in style, with the biggest and best year at Edinburgh so far.

We hosted 9 new plays, 5 one-off late night shows, and 193 performances in total to over 23,000 audience members. We marked and celebrated these past ten years with all of the love, energy and good vibes that we and our audiences have come to expect when we take our seats in this unique theatre.

Edinburgh is such a special time for our company, and each year we spend a lot of time considering, discussing, reading and reimagining a new programme of work for Roundabout that will thrill audiences. Summerhall is an incredible home for Roundabout, however due to a combination of factors including Summerhall’s circumstances over the past few months, we are pausing on returning to the festival with Roundabout for this year.

We have decided instead to focus the rest of 2025 on a brand new programme of touring plays and artist support – in our new home in Coventry, at the Edinburgh Fringe, and across the country.

Stay tuned: we can’t wait to announce these plans in the months to come.

We are still trying to raise money to make all of this (and much more) happen, and we need your help. At the beginning of this landmark year, we set ourselves the goal of raising a minimum of £50,000 to continue our work.

We are now 70% towards that target, but we still need a lot of help to reach it.

Next up is our 50^th anniversary fundraising gala on 10 February with amazing guest actors and directors performing extracts from some of Paines Plough’s best loved plays, celebrating the company’s 50 years with a few surprises on the evening in store. You can join us by buying tickets here: https://www.criterion-theatre.co.uk/painesplough

If you can’t make the gala, there are other ways to get involved. Please tell your friends to tell a friend about us, buy a ticket to one of our shows, come along to one of our book club gatherings, or if you can, please donate to our crowdfunding page here: https://donate.justgiving.com/charity/painesplough/donation-amount