A bumper celebration of new writing and writers, to celebrate Paines Plough’s 50th birthday and raise funds to secure our future.

The evening featured an exclusive new piece entitled ‘The Next 50’, written by our patron James Graham and performed by Monica Dolan.

Followed by extracts from some of Paines Plough’s seminal productions, performed by guest stars:

• 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 – performed by TV royalty, Meg Bellamy (Princess Kate in The Crown) and Hugh Skinner (Prince William in The Windsors), directed by Matthew Dunster.
• Love, Love, Love by Mike Bartlett – performed by Lesley Sharp, Iain Glen and Jessie Cave, directed by Charlotte Bennett.
• 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, directed by Charlotte Bennett.
• Hungry by Chris Bush – featuring Heather Agyepong (Shifters; The Power) and Sophie Melville (Cowbois; The Way), directed by Katie Posner.
• A filmed segment with Olivier Award-winner 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 50 years ago: the Plough pub in Bolnhurst, Bedford.
• Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz by Nathan Queeley-Dennis – performed by Kola Bokinni (Ted Lasso), directed by Katie Posner.
• Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe.

Appearances will also include Indhu Rubasingham (Director Designate of the National Theatre), and playwrights James Graham, Roy Williams, Mark Ravenhill and Ryan Calais Cameron.

This event is part of Paines Plough’s 50 for 50 Campaign which aims to raise £50,000 to support its work at at time when new writing is under threat. There are so many stories in danger of never being heard, and we want to make sure we can spend the next 50 years finding them.

An international group of young democrats are working for an NGO called Democracy in Action in Zimbabwe in the run up to the elections.

Their goal, to educate and help register voters, but an increasingly violent run up to elections brings chaos their way testing the very reason for their commitment and presence in the country.

Trim? Fresh.
Skin? Glowing.
Vibes? Immaculate.  

Nathaniel is a serious romantic who sees love as a fine art. He’s looking for the Mona Lisa to his da Vinci, and tonight is the night: his date with Destiny…’s Child. 

Winner of the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2022, Nathan Queeley-Dennis’ debut play is a love letter to Birmingham, exploring Black masculinity through Beyonce lyrics, techno raves and the deeply intimate relationship between a man and his barber.

So they’ve both swiped right. Now they’re meeting for the first time. Facing each other. As if that’s a normal thing to do.

But she’s being uncomfortable, and he’s a total bore. The vibe is horrific and the banter is even worse. But something is keeping them in their seats. Something is making them stay.

With acid wit, Miriam Battye’s award-winning new play takes a scalpel to modern romance.

A U.S. production of Strategic Love Play opened at the Minetta Lane Theatre in November & December 2024, produced by Audible and Chase This Productions. It was directed by the show’s original director Katie Posner, starring Michael Zegen and Heléne Yorke.

Born in Denton Burn, Ric Renton had a troubled upbringing that led to him spending his young adulthood in prison. Whilst in HMP Durham he learned to read and crucially to write. This is his story. Relived and performed by him.

Three young men Knox, Brown and Shepherd pass their time in a prison with the highest suicide rate in the country. Energised by their friendship but with the walls around them getting smaller, haunted by the repeated pronouncements of another life lost, the arrival of a nightwatchman, Jock, offers Shepherd an unexpected way through the darkness.

Rich with emotion but sizzling with high energy and the blackest humour, One Off is one of the most urgent pieces of new writing you will likely see.

‘One Off was all the dignity afforded to those who could take no more. No names. Not even their number. One off.
I am DV7786.
And I write this for all the dead boys, and for night watchman Jock, who, without his invisible, persistent presence, unseen in the corridors of HMP Durham, I too may have just been another One Off.’
Ric Renton