Our City of Culture events are now on sale

Like There’s No Tomorrow, Weds 19 May – Sun 13 June

There are strange cracks appearing in the land on the other side of the world, turning habitats into wastelands and creating a new wave of climate refugees. But no one’s worrying about that here – where a mayoral candidate is promising more, more, more. It’s what the people want. Apart from Maru that is, who can’t breathe.

The last show to take place on our B2 stage in March 2020 was Like There’s No Tomorrow – a piece raising awareness on climate change devised by our Young Company. The timely piece asks should we still care about the earth we live on?

Now being performed in an entirely digital rendering by our Youth Theatre, Like There’s No Tomorrow is one of the first ever plays devised by a group of young people to be commissioned by National Theatre Connections.

This June, we’re delighted to be hosting the NT Connections Festival as a West Midlands partner organisation. In a year like no other, we’ve had to adapt the usual in-person format of the festival​ offering our B2 stage to two of the three participating youth companies and filming their productions. ​Our online festival will take place on Fri 4 and Sat 5 June, showcasing the work of all participating youth companies – along with our Youth Theatre’s digital rendering of Like There’s No Tomorrow – and will invite the young people to connect, discuss and celebrate their work and process in post-show forums.

We’re delighted to have partnered with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust for Like There’s No Tomorrow. They have just launched their Nature Recovery Fund in response to serious threats to the environment, including climate change. The Fund aims to establish new nature reserves and bring wildlife back to Coventry, Warwickshire and Solihull. 10% of donations raised by LTNT bookers will be gifted to the Nature Recovery Fund. The rest of the donations will be retained by the Belgrade and reinvested in the work that we do, including our work with young people. Info about the fund here.

Roundabout, Tues 27 July – Sun 8 August 2021

Paines Plough’s Roundabout auditorium will be host to a festival of new world-class plays and community-led activities this summer.

Situated in the grounds of Moat House Leisure and Neighbourhood Centre in the Wood End area of the city, the world’s first ‘plug-in, pop-up and play’ theatre will host four plays in repertory throughout the festival, alongside an exciting range of creative opportunities for everyone to get involved in.

A familiar sight at the Edinburgh Festival each year, this summer the Roundabout tent will be situated in a Coventry community. Here it will become a creative hub for the community to create and watch shows outside of the Belgrade Theatre building.

Paines Plough and the Belgrade Theatre Coventry present Roundabout for Coventry UK City of Culture 2021.

The following 4 plays will make up the professional work presented at the Roundabout festival.

May Queen, by Frankie Meredith

May Day in Coventry, 2022. Sixteen-year-old Leigh has been chosen as May Queen, she’s buzzing, as is the rest of the city.

The cider is flowing and St George’s flag is flying – but an encounter during the day’s festivities will soon change everything.

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?

Directed by our very own Co-Artistic Director for 2021, Balisha Karra.

Age Guidance: 12+

Really Big and Really Loud, by Phoebe Eclair-Powell

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.

Age guidance: 5+

Hungry, by Chris Bush

“I’d watch you eat. I’d eat you up. You’re not like them, are you? You’re real.”

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.

Hungry is a new play about food, love, class and grief in a world where there’s little left to savour.

Age Guidance: 12+

Black Love, by Chinonyerem Odimba, with music by the Ringham Brothers

A Belgrade Theatre Coventry and Paines Plough production in association with tiata fahodzi.

Introducing Roundabout’s first ever musical

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.

Black Love is an explosion of form busting storytelling, an ode to Black music, and those real stories we rarely hear.

Age Guidance: 12+

As our Co-Artistic Directors for 2021, Corey Campbell, Balisha Karra and Justine Themen are overseeing our producing programme for Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture. They are successfully working to present a diverse range of shows and events which reflect the drive and ambition of the City of Coventry.

Tickets for these events are on sale now and can be found here.

More events will be announced soon!