Paines Plough’s award-winning flat pack theatre – Roundabout – will be erected outside Lincoln Performing Arts Centre week commencing 21 September and host a mini-festival of critically acclaimed theatre, comedy, music and family performances.
Roundabout looks a little like a space ship and will land on the University of Lincoln campus this autumn beneath a specially constructed geo-dome and can be set up in just 24 hours. This intimate theatre-in-the-round combines beautiful design with innovative engineering and pioneering technology to deliver a top class theatre experience. There has never been anything like this in the city, with Lincoln being one of only a few places in the UK to present this distinctive experience, following successful runs at Edinburgh Festival Fringe and London’s Southbank.
Inside the Roundabout the programme is also ‘pop-up’ and unique to its Lincoln visit. Touring productions presented as part of the festival include the critically acclaimed Lungs by Duncan Macmillan, children’s show Our Teacher’s A Troll by Dennis Kelly (writer of West End Hit Matilda The Musical with Tim Minchin), and Fringe First Award-winning playwright Alexandra Wood’s new thriller The Human Ear. Lincoln Performing Arts Centre has also scheduled its own performances that reflect the spirit of the type of work presented at the venue. Alongside lunchtime script readings and a double bill of short plays previously supported by Lincoln Performing Arts Centre – Maisie Says She Loves Me by local playwright Jimmy Osborne and He(art) by Andrew Maddock – there is stand-up comedy MegaGames with Tom Webb, musical showcase Sing: From Broadway to Brayford, storytelling for the Under 5s and late-night fun for grown-ups in the brand new Brayford Cabaret.
During the festival Lincoln Performing Arts Centre will also be populating the area outside Roundabout with outdoor seating, festoons, bunting, a bar and performance area with live acoustic sessions from young musicians, adding to the unique festival feel and opening up the campus to the rest of Lincoln.
Artistic Director of Lincoln Performing Arts Centre Craig Morrow said today: “I first saw a performance in the Roundabout theatre in 2014, whilst it was at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The production was Lungs by Duncan Macmillan and it blew me away – with two actors standing only a few feet away from me it was one of the most intensely moving performances I’ve ever seen and no doubt a consequence of seeing the play in such an intimate space.
But this was not my first encounter with the Roundabout space. Back in 2010, six months before I started Lincoln I worked on a consultancy project for Paines Plough, looking at touring theatre in the regions. It was felt that venues were struggling to afford to put on new plays, whilst touring companies often felt the theatre spaces were not the right size for the type of plays they wanted to produce. It was from this dual problem that the idea of a touring theatre that could pop-up anywhere was born.
Jump back to Edinburgh 2014 and having seen the space in action, in the midst of festival spirit I vowed to bring Roundabout to Lincoln. In a year full of public celebrations across the city – from Magna Carta and Festival800, to the biennial Frequency Festival – 2015 feels like the right time to be hosting this pop-up theatre festival. Because we’re on the university campus it’s sometimes unclear to audiences that Lincoln Performing Arts Centre is open to everyone and that the University is passionate for the people of Lincoln to share in its public spaces. We were therefore eager to find a way to animate the square outside our venue, encourage audiences to turn a dead space into a place where they would want to spend time and to me Roundabout Festival felt like just the right sort of event to make this happen.”
Roundabout Festival runs outside Lincoln Performing Arts Centre from 23-26 September with tickets on sale now.
~ENDS~
For further information and images please contact: Julie Ellerby, Marketing Manager:
E: jellerby@lincoln.ac.uk // T: 01522837677
EXTENDED INFORMATION
Schedule for Roundabout Festival at Lincoln Performing Arts Centre
Box Office: 01522 837600 // www.lpac.co.uk
Wednesday 23 September
LUNGS – 8pm
Thursday 24 September
OUR TEACHER’S A TROLL – 10.30am
SCRIPT THIS: LUNCHTIME SCRIPT READING – 12.30pm
OUR TEACHER’S A TROLL – 4pm
THE HUMAN EAR – 6.30pm
Friday 25 September
Lil’ Pacs: The Night Pirates – 10am
SCRIPT THIS: LUNCHTIME SCRIPT READING – 12.30pm
DOUBLE BILL: HE(ART) & MAISIE SAYS SHE LOVES ME – 6pm
LUNGS – 8.30pm
Saturday 26 September
OUR TEACHER’S A TROLL – 10.30am
SING: FROM BROADWAY TO – 1pm
THE HUMAN EAR – 3pm
LUNGS – 7pm
THE BRAYFORD CABARET – 9pm
About Roundabout
Roundabout Auditorium Design: Lucy Osborne and Emma Chapman
in collaboration with Charcoalblue and Howard Eaton
Roundabout auditorium was built and developed by Factory Settings
Roundabout, Paines Plough’s portable in-the-round theatre, was the centerpiece of the company’s 40th anniversary programme and winner of The Stage “Theatre Building of the Year 2015”. Thanks to the generous support of principal funder Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation along with J Paul Getty Jr Charitable Trust, John Ellerman Foundation and Garfield Weston Foundation, the brand new pop-up theatre will form an integral part of future Paines Plough programmes.
Roundabout facts and figures…
SHOW DETAILS
A PAINES PLOUGH PRODUCTION
LUNGS
BY DUNCAN MACMILLAN
Wednesday 23 September 8pm
Friday 25 September 8.30pm
Saturday 26 September 7pm
“I could fly to New York and back every day for seven years and still not leave a carbon footprint as big as if I have a child. Ten thousand tonnes of CO2. That’s the weight of the Eiffel Tower. I’d be giving birth to the Eiffel Tower.”
A couple are deciding their future. Thirty-something, educated and thoughtful, they want to have a child for the right reasons. But in a time of overpopulation, erratic weather and political unrest, what exactly are the right reasons?
A play about the different types of love we feel in a lifetime.
Running Time: 70 mins
Age Guidance: 14+
Tickets: £12 Full // £10 Concessions // £5 Students & Under 26s
A PAINES PLOUGH AND HALF MOON PRODUCTION
OUR TEACHER’S A TROLL
BY DENNIS KELLY
Thursday 24 September 10.30am
Thursday 24 September 4pm
Saturday 26 September 10.30am
Two terrible twins with a talent for turmoil rule their school with terror and tyranny – until the arrival of a new head teacher with green scaly skin, sharp gnarly fangs, and a long spiky tail…
Can the twins save the school from the child-eating Troll? Can they get Brussels sprouts in peanut butter taken off the menu? And most importantly, can naughtiness prevail?
Be outrageously entertained in this colourfully comic show from the writer of award-winning West End hit Matilda The Musical. For ages 7+ and their accompanying trolls (or parents).
Running Time: 50 mins
Age Guidance: 7 years+
Tickets: Full £8 // Child £5 // Family Ticket £20 (four people, max two adults).
A Paines Plough production
THE HUMAN EAR
by Alexandra Wood
Thursday 24 September 6.30pm
Saturday 26 September 3pm
A man turns up at Lucy’s door claiming to be the brother she hasn’t seen in 10 years. But why has he come? Is it really him? And what happens when there’s another knock at the door?
Forced to confront the messy inner workings of sibling love with its petty resentments, casual cruelty, profound betrayals and implicit understanding, can the bond between brother and sister be rebuilt?
An intriguing tale of loss, renewal and knowing who to trust from Fringe First Award-winner Alexandra Wood.
Running Time: 70 mins
Age Guidance: TBC
Tickets: £12 Full // £10 Concessions // £5 Students & Under 26s
SCRIPT THIS PRESENTS
LUNCHTIME SCRIPT READINGS
Thursday 24 September 12.30pm
Friday 25 September 12.30pm
A selection of script-in-hand readings from previous winners of Script This, alongside some of the best new writing supported by Lincoln Performing Arts Centre.
See www.lpac.co.uk for each day’s lunchtime line-up.
Running Time: 1 hour
Age: 14+
Tickets: Pay What You Can // £3.50 suggested
MEGA GAMES with TOM WEBB
Thursday 24 September 8.30pm
A comedy night with a difference, hosted by the award-winning Tom Webb. This hilarious tournament of interactive games is played by and made up of YOU, the audience.
Including Human Hungry Hippos, Crowd Kerplunk, Big Top Trumps and Audience Guess Who.
“One of the most mega fun and mega silly things in town. Mega recommended.” **** THE SKINNY
Running Time: 1 hour (no interval)
Tickets: £10 All Tickets
SCRIPT THIS PRESENTS
DOUBLE BILL: HE(ART) & MAISIE SAYS SHE LOVES ME
Friday 25 September 6pm
A double-bill of short new plays previously supported by Script This and Lincoln Performing Arts Centre’s artist support scheme Newvolutions.
HE(ART)
By Andrew Maddock
Rhys & Alice can’t decide on a piece of art for their living room. Sam & Kevin just want enough money to pay for their mum’s cancer treatment.
Rhys has a heart condition. Kevin wants to rob the art gallery.
He(Art) is a one act play about relationships and what we are prepared to put ourselves through for the people we love.
A Press Play Theatre Company production. Directed by Ryan Bradley
MAISIE SAYS SHE LOVES ME
By Jimmy Osborne
Maisie is a very forgiving woman. It is one of her many endearing qualities.
Maisie says she loves Sheldon, but he’s not sure. Sheldon worries. About lots of things. About Maisie. About his family. About himself. A monologue about love and inheritance.
A FallOut Theatre production. Directed by Simon Evans Performed by David Aula
Running Time: 1 hour 30 mins (inc. interval)
Age: 14+
Tickets: £10 full // £8 Concessions // £5 Students & Under 26s
LIL’ PACS: THE NIGHT PIRATES
Friday 25 September 10am
All aboard for a night-time adventure! Join us for a very special Roundabout Lil’ Pacs based on The Night Pirates by Peter Harris and Deborah Allwright. When dark shadows come stealing down Tom’s bedroom walls he thinks it might be monsters or ogres or trolls. But the truth is much stranger. It’s pirates! (And very unusual pirates, at that)
This free, creative storytelling session is perfect for the under 5s and their grown-ups.
Running Time: 1 hour 30 mins (no interval)
Tickets: £3 Child // Adults go free
SING: FROM BROADWAY TO BRAYFORD
Saturday 26 September 1pm
Lincoln School of Fine & Performing Arts has selected its finest students studying Acting The Song, to present a showcase of the big hits from your favourite musicals.
Running Time: 50 mins (no interval)
Tickets: £5 All Tickets
THE BRAYFORD CABARET
Saturday 26 September 9pm
Lincoln’s brand-new bold and brash mash-up of music, comedy and song launches as part of Roundabout. Expect off-the-wall sketches, razor sharp wit and mind-blowing melodies. No Pugs.
Running Time: 1 hour 30 mins (inc. interval)
Tickets: £8 All Tickets
NOTES TO EDITORS
Lincoln Performing Arts Centre is a vibrant, contemporary arts organisation at the heart of the city of Lincoln. Owned and operated by University of Lincoln, it acts as a bridge to the community, providing opportunities for creative exchange between artists, audiences and academia.
Alongside hosting the best in presented work from comedy to new writing, family shows to classical music, and innovative classics to contemporary performance, Lincoln Performing Arts Centre also commissions and self-produce shows with professional companies, whilst nurturing the next generation of artists and practitioners, providing learning opportunities through The Lincoln Company – an ensemble of students and alumni that produces work for a range of festivals and runs shows in rep throughout the year.
Lincoln Performing Arts Centre
University of Lincoln
Brayford Pool
Lincoln
LN6 7TS
Twitter: @lpac_lincoln
Facebook.com/LincolnPerformingArtsCentre
Box Office: 01522 837600
Open: Monday-Friday 10am-6pm and from one hour before the performance.
Paines Plough is the UK’s national theatre of new plays. They commission and produce the best playwrights and tour their plays far and wide. Paines Plough was formed in 1974 over a pint of Paines bitter in the Plough pub. They’ve been goings strong for over 40 years and have produced more than 130 new productions by world renowned playwrights like Stephen Jeffreys, Abi Morgan, Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill, Dennis Kelly and Mike Bartlett. They’ve toured those plays to hundreds of places from Manchester to Moscow to Maidenhead.
“The lifeblood of the UK’s theatre ecosystem” The Guardian
“That noble company Paines Plough, de facto national theatre of new writing” The Daily Telegraph
Twitter: @painesplough
The University of Lincoln’s Centre for Culture and Creativity has delivered record-beating support for the region’s creative sector within its first year of achieving Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) status and has ambitious plans for this coming year.
Fresh off the back of their first year as an National Portfolio Organisation, Lincoln Arts Centre is open to applications to join their Innovate Artist Scheme once again, as the home for new artists and new artistic ideas.
The University of Lincoln, having signed a partnership agreement to support Lincoln Book Festival to grow and sustain into the future, is proud to announce the appointment of Amy Magnone as the new Lincoln Book Festival Director for 2024.
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A tale of boy meets girl with a tragic twist of fate.
Level 1 Musical Theatre students present a song-cycle of some of the best-loved works of Cole Porter - as well as a couple of hidden gems. A showcase of up-and-coming talent with some gorgeous tunes.
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