Crave

Posted on: February 26th, 2025 by ppEditor

Set in an unnamed city from which voices and images spring, Crave is a meditation on the nature of craving, and more specifically, the nature of loss.

The play in its earliest form was written under a pseudonym Marie Kelvedon, as part of Paines Plough’s first ‘Wild Lunch’ season of script-in-hand performances at the Bridewell Theatre in 1997.

This anonymity enabled Sarah to make a radical departure in the form, content and style of her writing, and to gauge the response of an audience unburdened by preconceptions based on the extreme reactions to her past work, including Blasted in 1995.

Crave marked a departure in Sarah’s work. Having pioneered a new theatre where brutality and action express an emotional narrative, in Crave she deployed language like music. Rhythm and orchestration were as vital as content to understand and respond to the play.

The result was dark, compassionate and exhilarating, and was commissioned immediately by Paines Plough.

 

Paines Plough’s 50th Birthday Gala

Posted on: November 5th, 2024 by ppEditor

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:

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.

Shanghai Dolls

Posted on: September 12th, 2024 by ppEditor

The true story of a cultural martyr and a cultural oppressor.

When two penniless actresses meet in Shanghai at auditions for Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, they quickly become inseparable. But as political upheaval rips through China, their tumultuous friendship will alter not only the course of their lives, but the course of history. One will become China’s first female director. The other, the architect of the Cultural Revolution.

Amy Ng’s newest play looks at the untold story of two of the most influential women in Chinese history – Madame Mao and Sun Weishi – and how the personal truly is political.

Roundabout at Summerhall 2024

Posted on: May 9th, 2024 by ppEditor

This year, Paines Plough celebrates its 50th birthday, and this big joyous yellow dome celebrates its 10th.

So here it is: our celebration.

We have another packed programme showcasing some of the very best new writing that the country has to offer. Just like the plays and the writers we have championed across our 50 years, these are stories that blaze with laughter, hope, love and fury.

They come from voices and perspectives you might never have heard before, speak about the world in new ways, and hold a mirror to our relationships with ourselves and one another.

We hope you love them just as much as we do.

Scroll down to see the full Roundabout at Summerhall programme…

My Mother’s Funeral: The Show

Posted on: March 2nd, 2024 by ppEditor

Abigail’s mum is dead. But it turns out she can’t afford her to be.

Did you know how expensive it is to die? It’s £4000 for the funeral. Extra for flowers. And even more if you want sausage rolls. Otherwise, she will get a council funeral and an unmarked grave.

Then, when a theatre suddenly pulls out of Abigail’s new project, she is asked to write about something else. Something more raw, from her ‘unique working class lens.’ Something that will make the audience feel really, really bad about themselves. Audiences like that, apparently.

Yep. To afford the funeral, she has to write about her mum.

Winner of the Scotsman Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival 2024, with power and playfulness, Kelly Jones’s new play tackles the inequalities around death, and the cost of turning your loved ones into art.

Dissonance

Posted on: February 19th, 2024 by ppEditor

A rave, a protest to ‘kill the criminal justice bill’ and a night that will have consequences for decades to come.

Moving between 1994 and 2023, Dissonance is a play exploring the importance of protest, how each generation gets blamed by the next for not doing enough, and why we need to listen to each other.

Roundabout at Summerhall 2017

Posted on: November 17th, 2023 by ppEditor

Roundabout at Summerhall 2018

Posted on: November 17th, 2023 by ppEditor

Roundabout at Summerhall 2019

Posted on: November 17th, 2023 by ppEditor

Roundabout at Summerhall 2016

Posted on: November 17th, 2023 by ppEditor