Paines's Plough's ROUNDABOUT 2021 Season to Open in Wood End in Coventry This Week With Four World Premieres

The Belgrade Theatre has announced that Paines's Plough's ROUNDABOUT season 2021 will open in Wood End in Coventry this week, with four world premieres taking place in Paines Plough's award-winning, portable, in-the-round auditorium, situated in the grounds of the Moat House Leisure and Neighbourhood Centre in Wood End. Roundabout 2021 is a Belgrade Theatre Coventry and Paines Plough co-production and is part of the Belgrade Theatre's Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 programme. The space will have four pieces in repertory between Tue 27 July - Sun 8 Aug.

The line-up of four world premieres includes a new musical by Chinonyerem Odimba (PRINCESS & THE HUSTLER, MEDEA) - BLACK LOVE with music by Ben and Max Ringham, which will be co-directed by Chinonyerem Odimba and Paines Plough's Co Artistic Director Katie Posner, in association with tiata fahodzi. This will play in rep with Chris Bush's (STEEL, THE CHANGING ROOM) new play HUNGRY, a play about food, love, class and grief in a world where there's little left to savour, and Phoebe Eclair-Powell's (FURY, EPIC LOVE AND POP SONGS) new family show REALLY BIG AND REALLY LOUD, both also directed by Katie Posner.

Paines Plough's 2019 Playwright Fellow Frankie Meredith will also present MAY QUEEN - a coming-of-age story about a young woman from Coventry on a quest to find her place in her city and in the world, directed by 2021 Co-Artistic Director of Belgrade Theatre Balisha Karra. Balisha was Paines Plough's Trainee Director in 2018.

The Belgrade Theatre has long had a tradition of working with the community, to create work with and for the people of Coventry, and it has appointed Kim Hackleman and Ayesha Jones as Embedded Community Producers specifically to work with community organisations to create events that encourage loal people to take ownership of the space. For example, Curtis Liburd, who works with Guiding Young Minds to support young people to avoid criminal activity, will be staging an invitation-only takeover on Sunday 01 August to show a film exploring gang culture and running a creative rap workshop.

BLACK LOVE, HUNGRY and REALLY BIG AND REALLY LOUD will be performed in rep by Nathan Queeley-Dennis (Doctors BBC), Leah St Luce (Beautiful UK TOUR), Eleanor Sutton (Amadeus NATIONAL THEATRE), with Yasmin Dawes (Underwater Love FUTURE THEATRE TOUR) joining as the central character in MAY QUEEN.

SHOW DATES / LISTINGS

May Queen

THURS 29, SAT 31 JULY AND TUES 3, THURS 5, SAT 7 AND SUN 8 AUG 2021

May Day in Coventry, 2022. Sixteen-year-old Leigh has been chosen as May Queen. She's buzzin', as is the rest of the city.

The cider is flowing and St George's flag is flying - but during the day's festivities something happens. Something disturbing, but maybe... unsurprising.

As the year moves on in the City of Peace and Reconciliation, Leigh must face up to the events of that hot May Day, and dig deep within herself to ask - how did she get here? And how does she get out?

May Queen is written by Midlands writer Frankie Meredith and directed by Balisha Karra, Belgrade Theatre's Co-Artistic Director for Coventry UK City of Culture 2021.

Age Guidance 12+

Content warning: Strong language, sexual assault Trigger warning: Description of sexual assault

Really Big and Really Loud

TUES 27, SAT 31 JULY AND SUN 1, TUES 3, WEDS 4, THURS 5, SAT 7 AND SUN 8 AUG 2021

This is a story. Charli's story. It's about losing your voice and going on a big adventure to find it again. It features a rageful rhino, a very helpful fly called Stephen and some really good songs about chips.

A show for all the family from award-winning playwright Phoebe Eclair-Powell, directed by Katie Posner

Hungry

FRI 30 JULY AND SUN 1, WEDS 4, FRI 6 AND SUN 8 AUG 2021

"I'd watch you eat. I'd eat you up. You're not like them, are you? You're real."

Hungry is a new play about food, love, class and grief in a world where there's little left to savour. Lori is a professional chef. Bex waits tables to make ends meet. One night together in a walk-in fridge and the rest is history. Lori has big plans, but Bex is struggling. If we are what we eat, then Bex is in real trouble. It's not her fault though - the system is rigged. No-one on minimum wage and zero hours has the headspace to make their own yoghurt.

Directed by Katie Posner.

Age Guidance: 12+

Content warning: Strong language

Trigger warning: References to eating disorders, death of a parent

Black Love

WEDS 28, SAT 31 JULY AND WEDS 4, FRI 6, SAT 7 AND SUN 8 AUG 2021

Black Love is an explosion of form busting storytelling, an ode to Black music, and those real stories we rarely hear. A musical like no other.

Love freely. Love freedom. Love. Meet Aurora and Orion: Sister and Brother. Constellations in time. More than blood. More than just fam. They look after each other in their small London flat, filled with the memories of their parents' Black Love.

When that love is threatened, they have to find their way back to each other and to what it means to love whilst Black. Using real-life stories, imagined worlds and new songs inspired by an R&B heritage, they begin a journey to confronting their own worst fears.

Co-directed by Chinonyerem Odimba and Paines Plough Katie Posner.

Age Guidance 12+

Content warning: Strong language, scenes of a sexual nature

Trigger warning: References to and themes around racism, death of a parent

Roundabout is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and has been additionally supported in 2021 by the Theatre's Trust.

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