We’re delighted to announce our Playwright Fellow for 2018 is Charley Miles. Charley will spend a year on attachment at PPHQ.
Our Artistic Directors James and George said:
“We are thrilled to welcome Charley to Paines Plough as this year’s Playwright Fellow. We were wowed by Charley’s extraordinary debut play BLACKTHORN which immediately confirmed her as a writer of thrilling imagination, astonishing insight and rare dramatic instinct. It is our great privilege to have the opportunity to work with the very best British playwrights at the start of their careers through the playwright Fellowship, and following in the footsteps of Nathan Bryon and Sam Steiner, we are truly excited about Charley as a major voice of the future.
We’d like to thank Jon and NoraLee Sedmak and an Anonymous Paines Plough alumnus playwright for their financial support of the Fellowship. Without them it would not be possible. In straightened financial times for theatre, the foresight and generosity of passionate people in supporting the future of British playwriting is absolutely vital, and we are hugely grateful for it.”
Charley added:
“I’m so excited to be joining Paines Plough as their Playwright Fellow this year. As a playwright that was born, raised and still living in an isolated area, companies that make work to tour rurally, reaching those often overlooked communities, hold a very dear place in my heart. I have always found Paines Plough, their work, and their gorgeous Roundabout space to be so inspiring, and hope the attachment will bring ever more inspiration.”
Full biography:
Charley Miles is a playwright from North Yorkshire.
Her debut play, BLACKTHORN, was produced in 2016 and went on to become a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn award in New York in 2017. She was the Channel 4 Playwright in Residence at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2017, and has recently written plays for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, the Royal Court, and the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Her original television drama, IN MEMORIUM, is in development with Buccaneer Media.
The Playwright Fellowship programme is part of our writer development programme The Big Room. You can read more about that here.
We’re delighted to announce the full programme for Roundabout @ Summerhall.
Our Artistic Directors James Grieve and George Perrin said today:
“We’re proud to present our ROUNDABOUT @ SUMMERHALLline-up for 2018, packed with outstanding new plays from around the UK.
Our Roundabout rep features three world premieres: Vinay Patel’s razor-sharp satire STICKS AND STONES, Simon Longman’s beautiful, elegiac ISLAND TOWNand Georgia Christou’s rip-roaring adventure through space HOW TO SPOT AN ALIEN.
We’re also welcoming some of the UK’s most innovative and exciting new writing companies and playwrights to Roundabout. Our Associate Company Middle Child return with an all new theatre gig ONE LIFE STAND by Eve Nicol, Boundless Theatre present musical comedy DRIP by Tom Wells, Olivier Award winning Sherman Theatre present Brad Birch’s new play TREMOR. Ed Edwards’ THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF SMACK AND CRACK chronicles the fallout for communities crushed by the heroin epidemic of the 80s with great anger and wit, and we’re thrilled that Fringe First winners Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair will join forces for SQUARE GO, a raucous story of playground violence deconstructing myths of masculinity.
Also in our programme we’re thrilled to welcome our newly announced Playwright Fellow for 2018 Charley Miles with her Susan Smith Blackburn nominated debut play BLACKTHORN. Written on attachment with West Yorkshire Playhouse, BLACKTHORN is a touching exploration of growing up in a North Yorkshire village.
We’ll be welcoming back old friends Dirty Protest as Alan Harris’ SUGAR BABY returns with tales of Cardiff drug dealer Marc and Billy the Seal. After last year’s sell-out run and numerous awards Middle Child’s ALL WE EVER WANTED WAS EVERYTHING by Luke Barnes returns for one week only.
Our LATER programme returns with an eclectic mix of electric new work from the very best companies, comedians, musicians and more throughout the Fringe so keep an eye on our social channels for announcements.”
A Paines Plough and Theatr Clwyd production STICKS AND STONES By Vinay Patel
“So we’re clear You know, right?
You know I’m not that kind of person.”
Sometimes we can’t find the right words. Sometimes the wrong word just slips out. Sometimes the right words become the wrong words. Sometimes that ruins everything.
When a misfiring joke turns their life upside down, B starts to question what being good really means. In an age when technology multiplies every mistake, can we find a way to understand each other?
A razor sharp satire about the search for a sure footing in an uncertain world from BAFTA nominated Vinay Patel.
A Paines Plough and Theatr Clwyd production ISLAND TOWN By Simon Longman
Kate, Sam and Pete are stuck. The town they live in doesn’t have much going on. But they don’t really care about that when they’ve got cheap cider and their whole lives ahead of them.
And they’re going to break away anyway. Someone’s about to get a car. And all roads go somewhere else. Right?
ISLAND TOWN is bittersweet story about friendship, hope and dreams of an escape.
Written by Simon Longman, recipient of the 2018 George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright (GUNDOG; Royal Court, MILKED; Pentabus Theatre Company).
A Middle Child production ONE LIFE STAND
By Eve Nicol
Music by James Frewer and Honeyblood
When we can have sex whenever we want, with whomever we want, why settle for a normal relationship? With the promise of fresh excitement just a swipe away, is Kat’s long-term lover her lifelong dream? One Life Stand is a late-night search for intimacy across a hyperconnected, hypersexual city, exposing the loneliness sometimes found in modern relationships, where expectations of love and lust are ever-changing.
Written by Eve Nicol with music by James Frewer and Honeyblood, this is brand-new gig theatre from the award-winning company behind All We Ever Wanted Was Everything.
An InSite Performance in association with West Yorkshire Playhouse BLACKTHORN By Charley Miles
‘What you think’s a completely different plant on ‘surface – it’s all from the same roots.’
The only two children born in a North Yorkshire village for a generation cannot imagine ever being apart, but as their lives shift, so too do the ties that bind them. Charley Miles’ outstanding debut play explores the changes and choices that pull us from the places and people we love. Blackthorn was a finalist for the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn prize in 2017 and is presented as an InSite production in association with the West Yorkshire Playhouse.
A Most Wanted and Offstage Theatre production in association with W14 Productions and Alastair Michael, co-commissioned by Soho Theatre THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF SMACK AND CRACK By Ed Edwards
‘The history of England jumps off its axis. 2am, 8th July, 1981, 20 cities across England burn.’
The night of the Manchester uprising. That night should change everything. Drawing on his own personal experience, Ed Edwards’ script crackles with anger, humour and authenticity as he chronicles the fallout for communities crushed by the heroin epidemic at the height of Thatcherism. Shot through with home truths about the road to recovery this is an epic love song to a lost generation.
Get tickets for THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF SMACK AND CRACK here.
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A Francesca Moody production SQUARE GO By Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair
Max is a normal-ish kid in a normal-ish town. He spends his days daydreaming and hanging out with his weird wee pal Stevie Nimmo. But when Max is called for his first Square Go, a fight by the school gates, it’s his own demons he must wrestle with first. This is an unmissable collaboration between Fringe First-winning writers Kieran Hurley (Heads Up) and Gary McNair (A Gambler’s Guide to Dying) is a raucous and hilarious new play about playground violence, myths of masculinity and the decision to step up or run.
Once our lives are touched by tragedy, can we ever truly move on? Sophie and Tom’s relationship fell apart in the aftermath of a catastrophe. Four years on and as they come face to face once again, the aftershocks of that fateful day can still be felt.
Tremor is the world premiere production from the Olivier Award-winning Regional Theatre of the Year. This thrilling new play by Brad Birch (Black Mountain, Roundabout 2017) explores how society chooses to live in a time riddled with tension, anxiety and division.
A Boundless Theatre and Script Club production DRIP Words by Tom Wells Music by Matthew Robins
A one-man musical comedy by award-winning duo Tom Wells (words) and Matthew Robins (music) fresh from a sell-out tour. Liam is 15 and he’s just signed up for Bev Road Baths’ first ever synchronised swimming team. It’s for his best mate Caz really. She needs to get a team together to win the annual Project Prize at school. She tries every year. She always loses. But Liam’s an optimist, he’s determined to help. There’s just one problem. Liam can’t swim.
‘Matthew Robins’ music and Wells’ lyrics feel like Victoria Wood for a new generation.’ (Stage).
A Dirty Protest production SUGAR BABY By Alan Harris
Being a small-time drug dealer in Cardiff is tough. Marc avoids his mum, disguises his cannabis plants with fake tomatoes at the allotment, and now has to bail his old man out of £6,000 owed to local loan shark Oggy. When he meets Lisa for the first time in years, things get even messier. Oggy wants Lisa. Lisa wants Marc. Marc wants to survive the day. Critically acclaimed one-man comedy from award-winning Welsh company Dirty Protest.
A Middle Child production ALL WE EVER WANTED WAS EVERYTHING By Luke Barnes Music by James Frewer
Meet Leah and Chris: raised on Harry Potter, New Labour and a belief that one day they would be as special as their parents promised. But what happens when those dreams don’t become reality? Set across three decades, from 1997’s Cool Britannia to today’s Brexit Britain, this is multi award-winning gig theatre that mixes original live music from James Frewer with bold new writing by Luke Barnes. 2017 Broadway Baby Bobby Award; 2017 The Stage Excellence Award; 2017 Edinburgh Festival Fringe sell-out show.
‘Superb gig theatre’ (Lyn Gardner, Guardian).
Get tickets for ALL WE EVER WANTED WAS EVERYTHING here.
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Let us know what you’re most excited for on @painesplough with #RoundaboutPP
