PRESS RELEASE – Tuesday 19th November PAINES PLOUGH ANNOUNCE CASTING FOR SAM STEINER’S YOU STUPID DARKNESS! AT SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE, A CO-PRODUCTION WITH THEATRE ROYAL PLYMOUTH IMAGES CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE www.painesplough.com / @painesplough /#PP2019 / Theatre. Everywhere. Paines Plough have today announced casting for the transfer of Sam Steiner’s YOU STUPID DARKNESS! to Southwark Playhouse, a co-production with Theatre Royal Plymouth. An urgent play about the struggle for optimism and community amid the chaos of a collapsing world, the production is directed by former Paines Plough co-Artistic Director James Grieve and the cast includes: Andrew Finnigan; Jenni Maitland; Lydia Larson; Andy Rush. The show opened at Theatre Royal Plymouth earlier this year and will run at Southwark Playhouse from 16 January – 22 February with a Press Night on Monday 20 January. “I just think it’s, you know, important to look at the good things that are happening as well.”

Everything’s been falling apart for a while now. In a cramped, crumbling office four volunteers spend a few hours every Tuesday night on the phone to strangers telling them everything is going to be ok. As the outside world disintegrates around them, Frances, Joey, Angie and Jon teeter on the edge of their own personal catastrophes. Their hopes and fears become entangled as they try, desperately, to connect with the callers and with each other.

Andrew will reprise his role as Joey. His theatre credits include: BROKEN BISCUITS (Live Theatre/Paines Plough and UK tour); DRIP (Hull City of Culture/Boundless Theatre/Tour); MY UNCLE FREDDIE, WORMTOWN (The Customs House, South Shields) and Great North Run for BBC Radio 4. Jenni’s theatre credits includes: EMILIA (Vaudeville Theatre, West End and Shakespeare’s Globe) BY JEEVES (Landor Theatre); (Cambridge Arts Theatre); THE RIVALS (Southwark Playhouse); HOBSON’S CHOICE (Chichester Festival Theatre UK Tour); A CHORUS OF DISAPPROVAL (The Mill At Sonning); NORTHANGER ABBEY (York Theatre Royal/Salisbury Playhouse/UK Tour); IN EXTREMIS (Shakespeare’s Globe); CORAM BOY (National Theatre); PLASTIC JESUS (Old Vic); HOUSE AND GARDEN, FEN, SHARP RELIEF (Salisbury Playhouse); AMADEUS (York Theatre Royal). Lydia will reprise her role as Angie. Her theatre credits include: FINDING FASSBENDER (Pleasance, Edinburgh), SKIN A CAT (UK tour, Bunker & Vault, Offie shortlisted: Best Actress), BRUTAL CESSATION (Assembly), WE HAVE FALLEN (Underbelly), THE AFTER- DINNER JOKE & SPRINGS ETERNAL (Orange Tree), PERSUASION (Salisbury Playhouse), PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (Theatre Royal Bath and UK Tour), 24 HOUR PLAYS (Old Vic), ARCADIA (SFP).

Andy’s theatre credits include: THE HERE AND THIS AND NOW (Southwark Playhouse / Theatre Royal Plymouth); I GOT MY SUPERPOWERS FOR MY BIRTHDAY (Paines Plough/Half Moon Production); LOVE LIES AND TAXIDERMY (Paines Plough/Clwyd Theatr Cymru/Sherman Cymru); GROWTH (Paines Plough); TIPPING THE VELVET (Lyric Hammersmith); JUMPERS FOR GOALPOSTS (Paines Plough); HELLO GOODBYE (); THE KITCHEN SINK (Bush Theatre). Sam is a playwright and screenwriter from Manchester. His debut play, the award-wining LEMONS LEMONS LEMONS LEMONS LEMONS, was first produced by Walrus Theatre (a company he co-founded), and has subsequently been performed all over the world, in eight different languages. Since then Sam’s work on stage has included KANYE THE FIRST (HighTide) and most recently A TABLE TENNIS PLAY (Walrus Theatre) at the Edinburgh Fringe. Other pieces of Sam’s work have been showcased at the Royal Exchange, Soho, Southwark Playhouse, Sala Beckett in Barcelona, and the Cannes and London Film Festivals. He completed an attachment at Paines Plough as their Playwright Fellow and holds an MA in Screenwriting from the National Film and Television School. Sam is currently under commission at Paines Plough, and developing television and film projects with Euston North and Sunny March. James Grieve was Joint Artistic Director of Paines Plough 2010-2019. He was formerly co- founder and Artistic Director of nabokov, and Associate Director at The Bush Theatre. His current work includes GOD’S DICE by David Baddiel starring Alan Davies at Soho Theatre and a new production of CABARET for Gothenburg Opera in Sweden.

James’ directing credits for Paines Plough include POP MUSIC by Anna Jordan, OUT OF LOVE by Elinor Cook, BLACK MOUNTAIN by Brad Birch, HOW TO BE A KID by Sarah McDonald-Hughes, THE ANGRY BRIGADE by James Graham, BROKEN BISCUITS and JUMPERS FOR GOALPOSTS by Tom Wells, HOPELESSLY DEVOTED and WASTED by Kate Tempest, AN INTERVENTION and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE by Mike Bartlett, FLY ME TO THE MOON by Marie Jones, TINY VOLCANOES by Laurence Wilson, YOU CANNOT GO FORWARD FROM WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW by David Watson, THE SOUND OF HEAVY RAIN by Penelope Skinner and HAPPINESS by Nick Payne for BBC Radio 3.

Further credits include the new musical THE ASSASSINATION OF KATIE HOPKINS (Theatr Clwyd - Winner Best Musical Production, UK Theatre Awards 2018), a new production of LES MISERABLES for Wermland Opera in Karlstad, Sweden, TRANSLATIONS (Sheffield Theatres / ETT / Rose – Winner Best Production, UK Theatre Awards 2014), 66 BOOKS: A NOBODY by Laura Dockrill, THE WHISKY TASTER by James Graham, ST PETERSBURG by Declan Feenan and PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY by Lucy Kirkwood (The Bush), ARTEFACTS by Mike Bartlett (nabokov/The Bush, National Tour & Off- Broadway); KITCHEN, BEDTIME FOR BASTARDS and NIKOLINA by Van Badham (nabokov), and the world premieres of OLD STREET by Patrick Marber (nabokov Arts Club) and THE LIST by David Eldridge (Arcola).

-ENDS- For further information about Paines Plough please contact Maisie Lawrence at The Corner Shop PR: [email protected] / 0207 831 7657

LISTINGS

YOU STUPID DARKNESS! 16th January - 22nd February Southwark Playhouse 77-85 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BD Mondays – Saturdays, Tuesday and Saturday Matinees. Tickets from £14 http://www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk Press Night: Monday 20th January #YOUSTUPIDDARKNESS!

ABOUT PAINES PLOUGH

"The lifeblood of the UK’s theatre ecosystem." The Guardian

Paines Plough was formed in 1974 over a pint of Paines Bitter in the Plough pub. Since then we’ve produced more than 150 new productions by world renowned playwrights like Stephen Jeffreys, , Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill, , Mike Bartlett, Kate Tempest and Vinay Patel. We’ve toured those plays to hundreds of places from Bristol to Belfast to Brisbane.

"That noble company Paines Plough, de facto national theatre of new writing." The Daily Telegraph

In the past three years we’ve produced 30 shows and performed them in over 200 places across four continents. We tour to more than 30,000 people a year from Cornwall to the Orkney Islands; in village halls and Off-Broadway, at music festivals and student unions, online and on radio, and in our own pop-up theatre ROUNDABOUT. Our Programme 2019 premieres the best new British plays on tour the length and breadth of the UK in theatres, clubs and pubs everywhere from city centres to seaside towns. ROUNDABOUT hosts a jam-packed Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme and brings mini-festivals to each stop on its nationwide tour. Our COME TO WHERE I’M FROM app features 180 short audio plays available to download free from the App Store and GooglePlay.

"I think some theatre just saved my life." @kate_clement on Twitter

www.painesplough.com @PainesPlough www.facebook.com/painesploughHQ

ABOUT THEATRE ROYAL PLYMOUTH

Theatre Royal Plymouth is a registered charity providing art, education and community engagement throughout Plymouth and the wider region. We engage and inspire many communities through performing arts and we aim to touch the lives and interests of people from all backgrounds. We do this by creating and presenting a breadth of shows on a range of scales, with our extensive creative engagement programmes, by embracing the vitality of new talent and supporting emerging and established artists, and by collaborating with a range of partners to provide dynamic cultural leadership for the city of Plymouth.

Recent productions and co-productions include God Of Chaos by Phil Porter, The Kneebone Cadillac by Carl Grose, You Stupid Darkness! by Sam Steiner (with Paines Plough) and The Unreturning by Anna Jordan (with Frantic Assembly).

TRP has a strong track record of presenting and producing international work from companies and artists including Ontroerend Goed, Big In Belgium at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Robert Lepage and the late Yukio Ninagawa. In March 2019 TRP unveiled Messenger, the UK’s largest bronze sculpture created by the artist Joseph Hillier.