Paines Plough find, create and tour powerful new stories. They are getting stuck in to See It First 2025, not only presenting pitch-black comedy Consumed, but also offering a Writer’s Lab and making an appearance at our Artist Social.
Founded in 1974, Paines Plough have worked with over 300 outstanding British playwrights including James Graham, Sarah Kane, Dennis Kelly, Abi Morgan, Mike Bartlett, Sam Steiner, Elinor Cook, Vinay Patel, Zia Ahmed and Kae Tempest. This has lead to the creation of plays that are nationally discovered and locally heard.
As a touring theatre company dedicated to new writing, they discover, develop and empower writers across the country and share their explosive new stories with audiences all over the UK and beyond. Touring to over 40 places a year, including parks, campus, and beaches across the country, they are committed to bringing work to communities who might not otherwise have the opportunity to experience much new writing or theatre. This is enabled through their pioneering pop-up theatre Roundabout; a state of the art, in the round auditorium which travels the length and breadth of the country.
Wherever you are you can experience a Paines Plough production.
From left to right: Charlotte Bennett (cr. Rebecca Need-Menear), Katie Posner (cr. Rebecca Need-Menear), Karis Kelly (cr. Jack Taylor Gotch).,
Team Bios:Â
Charlotte Bennett, Joint Artistic Director
Charlotte (she/her) joined Paines Plough alongside Katie Posner in August 2019. For Paines Plough Charlotte has directed Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me by Amy Trigg (winner of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting) which premiered at Kiln Theatre in May 2021 before embarking upon a UK tour of seventeen venues and returning to the Kiln in November 2022, and Run Sister Run by Chloë Moss (Sheffield Theatres/Soho Theatre).
Previously she was Associate Director at Soho Theatre where she led the new writing department, developing artists and commissions and programming. During her time there she directed Whitewash by Gabriel Bisset-Smith, Happy Hour by Jack Rooke, curated a six-month off-site arts festival in Waltham Forest and led playwriting competition the Verity Bargate Award. Prior to this she was Artistic Director of Forward Theatre Project; an artists’ collective she founded. For Forward Theatre Project she made and directed new plays which toured nationally inspired by working in partnership with different communities around the UK and at venues including the National Theatre, York Theatre Royal, Northern Stage, Derby Theatre, Live Theatre and The Lowry. As a freelance director she has worked extensively for Open Clasp Theatre Company creating new plays inspired by women in the North-East and she held the role of Producer for theatre company RashDash for 4 years where she toured experimental new theatre around the UK.
Katie Posner, Joint Artistic Director
Katie Posner joined Paines Plough as Joint Artistic Director with Charlotte Bennett in August 2019. For Paines Plough, Katie has most recently directed Fringe First award winning play Strategic Love Play by Miriam Battye; You Bury Me by Ahlam (winner of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting) which premiered at Bristol Old Vic, Edinburgh Lyceum and the Orange Tree; Hungry (Soho Theatre/Roundabout Edinburgh); Really Big and Really Loud and Black Love (Co-Director for Roundabout).
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.
Karis Kelly, WriterÂ
Karis Kelly (she/they) is an award-winning Northern Irish playwright and screenwriter.
In 2022, Karis was selected as the winner of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting, for their play, Consumed. They were also the recipient of the Peggy Ramsay Foundation and Film4 Playwright’s Scheme Bursary, joining The Lyric, Belfast as their writer-in-residence. In 2024 Karis was chosen to be a part of the inaugural Women in Theatre Lab UK. They currently have an original drama series in development with World Productions.
For the screen: Hope Street – various episodes, (Longstory TV, BBC Northern Ireland, Britbox) Period Piece (Underwire Film Festival, Vancouver Women In Film Festival, Cineffable – Paris Lesbian & Feminist Film Festival), The Break (BBC Three and BBC Northern Ireland).
