Charlotte Bennett and Katie Posner, Artistic Directors of Paines Plough, have announced the UK tour dates for Roundabout 2021, which will form part of this year’s programme A Promise to 2021.

The pop-up venue usually premieres its work at Edinburgh Fringe Festival but has this year decided to premiere its four shows in 3 venues before touring as an in-the- round auditorium across the UK.

Paines Plough will play at the Belgrade Theatre as part of Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 from 27 July to 8 August. It will then perform at Northern Stage in Newcastle, followed by a stint in Slade Gardens in Brixton from 19 to 29 August.

Roundabout 2021 will consist of four new shows by Chris Bush, Phoebe Eclair-Powell, Frankie Meredith and Chinonyerem Odima. These will then tour across the UK to cities including Salford, Ramsgate, Doncaster, Lincoln and Bournemouth.

The four premieres consist of Black Love by Chinonyerem Odimba, a new musical with music by Ben and Max Ringham which follows Aurora & Orion, brother and sister who look after each other in their small London flat, surrounded by memories of their parents’ Black Love. This love is threatened and they must find their way back to each other, set to a backdrop of songs inspired by an R&B Heritage.

Chris Bush presents his play Hungry about food, love, class, and grief in a world where there is little left to savour.  Phoebe Eclair-Powell’s Really Big and Really Loud will offer families something to see, with Charli’s story which is all about losing your voice and going on a big adventure to discover it again, with a very helpful fly called Stephen and some really good songs about chips.  

These three plays will all be directed by Kate Posner and be performed by Nathan Queeley-Dennis, Leah St Luce, and Eleanor Sutton. Yasmin Dawes will take on the central character in the fourth piece entitled May Queen by Frankie Meredith, which is a coming-of-age story centred around sixteen-year-old Leigh who has been selected to be Coventy’s May Queen.  

May Queen is to be directed by Co-Artistic Director to the Belgrade Theatre, Balisha Karra.

The 10-day Roundabout programme in Brixton will also feature performances from visiting companies and artists including Rashdash Nouveau Riche, Bonnie and the Bonnettes, Sukh Ojla and Sindhu Vee.

Paines Plough are planning on partnering with food banks across the Roundabout tour venues to support those most affected by the pandemic and working alongside Eclair-Powell’s Really Big and Really Loud, they plan to work with young people to offer and engagement programme. On 27 August, they will host an activity programme in Brixton in partnership with Lambeth ELEVATE.

Tickets for the Brixton leg of the tour can be found here.