Today Paines Plough and 45North have released brand new production images from Chris Bush’s HUNGRYto mark the opening of its limited run at Soho Theatre this month, 12th-30th July. The images can be downloaded here. The play will also perform as part of Paines Plough’s Roundabout programmeat Summerhall, Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 3rd-28th August.
A Paines Plough and 45North co-production, HUNGRY is a blisteringly funny play about what we eat and who we love, exploring class, queerness, cultural appropriation and the cost of gentrification. The play is written by Chris Bush (Jane Eyre, Fantastically Great Women who Changed the World) and directed by Joint Artistic Director of Paines Plough Katie Posner.
Eleanor Sutton will be returning to play the role of Lori and, making their Soho Theatre debut, Melissa Lowe will take on the role of Bex.
Lori is a chef. Bex waits tables. One night in a walk-in fridge and the rest is history.
Lori wants to teach Bex about the finer things in life, but what’s the point when the system is rigged? After all, no-one on minimum wage has headspace to make their own yoghurt.
‘You want to swoop in and whisk me off to this brave new world of matcha powder and sourdough and reclaimed floorboards. And what if I’m happy as I am?’
HUNGRY, which premiered as part of Roundabout 2021’s programme,will also perform alongside three world premieres as part of Paines Plough’s Roundabout 2022 programme at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The programme includes a new play about Black British history in the school curriculum by Dipo Baruwa-Etti (An unfinished man) – HALF-EMPTY GLASSES, directed by Kaleya Baxe. This will play in rep with award-winning playwright Sami Ibrahim’s (two Palestinians go dogging) new poetic fable about the immigration system A SUDDEN VIOLENT BURST OF RAIN, directed by Yasmin Hafesji (The Maladies) and Roundabout’s new family show by Laura Lindow, THE ULTIMATE PICKLE about the importance of stories and imagination, and how young people deal with grief, directed by Eva Sampson.
Roundabout is Paines Plough’s award-winning portable in-the-round auditorium and 2022 will see it return for its eighth consecutive year. Roundabout will also host a programme of visiting companies, comedy, music and local community events. The full listings of events for the Edinburgh run can be found here.
Roundabout is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council. England.
BIOGRAPHIES
Chris Bush is an award-winning playwright, lyricist, and Associate Director at Sheffield Theatres. Her past work includes: Jane Eyre (Stephen Joseph Theatre/New Vic Theatre), Fantastically Great Women who Changed the World (Kenny Wax/UK Tour), Kein Weltuntergang/(Not) The End of the World (Schaubühne Berlin), Standing at the Sky’s Edge (Sheffield Theatres – Best Theatre: South Bank Sky Arts Awards, Best Musical: UK Theatre Awards), Nine Lessons and Carols: Stories for a Long Winter (Almeida), Faustus: That Damned Woman (Headlong/Lyric Hammersmith/Birmingham Rep), The Assassination of Katie Hopkins (Theatr Clwyd – Best Musical: UK Theatre Awards), Pericles (National Theatre). Upcoming work includes: Rock/Paper/Scissors (Sheffield Theatres), The Odyssey (National Theatre). Awards include: South Bank Sky Arts Award, two UK Theatre Awards, the Perfect Pitch Award, a Brit Writers’ Award and the Theatre Royal Haymarket Writers’ Award.
Katie Posner joined Paines Plough as Joint Artistic Director with Charlotte Bennett in August 2019. Katie has most recently directed – Really Big and Really Loud, Hungry, Black Love (Co-Director, Roundabout) and You Bury Me (Paines Plough/Ellie Keel Productions/45 North/Edinburgh International Festival). Katie is an experienced and award-winning director. She has worked across a wide variety of productions both overseas and on national tours, including multiple productions with York Theatre Royal and Pilot Theatre with whom she was Associate Director from 2009 until 2017. Her work encompasses both intimate pieces of new writing and larger-scale community pieces. In 2019 Katie received a UK Theatre Award nomination as Best Director with her production of My Mother Said I Never Should at Theatre By The Lake. Productions include: My Mother Said I Never Should (Theatre By The Lake); Mold Riots (Theatr Clwyd); The Seven Ages Of Patience (Kiln Theatre); Swallows & Amazons (Storyhouse), Babe (Mercury Theatre); Playing Up (NYT); Finding Nana (New Perspectives); Made In India (Tamasha/Belgrade/Pilot); Everything Is Possible: The York Suffragettes, End Of Desire (York Theatre Royal); The Season Ticket (Northern Stage); A View From Islington North (Out Of Joint); In Fog And Falling Snow (National Railway Museum); Running On The Cracks (Tron Theatre); York Mystery Plays (Museum Gardens York); Blackbird, Ghost Town, Clocking In, A Restless Place (Pilot Theatre).
Melissa Lowe will be playing Bex. Melissa will be making their Soho Theatre debut. Screen credits include: The Midwich Cuckoos (Sky). Theatre credits include: June in Gypsy (The Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester); Belle in A Christmas Carol (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds); Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest (The Octagon Theatre Bolton); Sally in The Cat in the Hat (Leicester Curve/UK Tour); Me and My Girl (Chichester Festival Theatre).
Eleanor Sutton will play Lori. Theatre credits include: Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre (Stephen Joseph Theatre/New Vic); Hungry, Black Love & Really Big And Really Loud (Paines Plough Roundabout); The Wizard Of Oz (Leeds Playhouse); The Crucible & A Little Night Music (Storyhouse Chester); Amadeus (National Theatre); Windows (Finborough Theatre); As You Like It (UK Tour) and The Master Builder & Future Conditional (The Old Vic).
