Paines Plough has announced the full cast and creative team for Kelly Jones’ new play My Mother’s Funeral: The Show, a co-production with Mercury Theatre, Belgrade Theatre, Landmark Theatres and Royal & Derngate Northampton.
Directed by Paines Plough’s Joint Artistic Director, Charlotte Bennett, the cast includes Samuel Armfield, Debra Baker and Nicole Sawyerr. My Mother’s Funeral: The Show will preview at Belgrade Theatre, Coventry before a full run at Roundabout @ Summerhall as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before touring the UK including Plymouth, Colchester, Bristol, Corby, Northampton and Newcastle.
Abigail’s mum is dead. But it turns out she can’t afford her to be.
Did you know how expensive it is to die? It’s £4000 for the funeral. Extra for flowers. And even more if you want sausage rolls. Otherwise, she will get a council funeral and an unmarked grave.
Then, when a theatre suddenly pulls out of Abigail’s new project, she is asked to write about something else. Something more raw, from her ‘unique working class lens.’ Something that will make the audience feel really, really bad about themselves. Audiences like that, apparently.
Yep. To afford the funeral, she has to write about her mum.
With power and playfulness, Kelly Jones’s new play tackles the inequalities around death, and the cost of turning your loved ones into art.
Playwright Kelly Jones commented: “Like most of my work My Mother’s Funeral: The Show is inspired by something true; a relative passed away and we couldn’t afford a funeral. Naively, I hadn’t realised we don’t all get treated the same when we die. I’d been brought up with the old adage that death is the leveller between the classes. That is not true: dignity comes at a high cost and those with the least (as always) have to pay the most. I wrote the first draft in a fury. Then I sent it to Paines Plough’s open call. They loved the script and wanted to produce it! Working with Charlotte and the PP team is an absolute dream come true. I have been aware of PP since I was a young writer, it has always been the goal to have a show inside that beautiful yellow dome. I am beyond excited and grateful to share this funny yet unfortunately still all too relevant story.”
Director Charlotte Bennett added: “I first met Kelly Jones through our open submissions process in 2022, and from that very first conversation, I knew the story she had to tell would be full of joy, anger, healing, catharsis and laughter. It has the feeling of a proper state of the nation satire about those who are so often left out of the national-political conversation; whose lives are hit hardest by austerity and the cost of living (and dying) crisis. In other words, it’s a story that we need to tell right now. To now bring this story to the stage with this incredible team to mark Paines Plough’s 50th birthday makes it all even sweeter. I can’t wait to get started, and for the show to meet audiences around the country.”
The production will feature Set and Costume Design by Rhys Jarman, Lighting Design by Joshua Gadsby, Sound Design by Asaf Zohar, Movement Direction by Rachael Nanyonjo, Dramaturgy by Lauren Mooney. The Assistant Director is Phillippe Cato, Casting Director Nadine Rennie CDG, Production Manager is Harry Armytage for The Production Office and Roni Neale completes the company as Company Stage Manager.
Kelly Jones is a gay working-class playwright and cabaret performer from Dagenham. Winner of the Wales Drama Award (BBC/NTW). Alumni of BBC Drama Room, The Bush EWG, Mercury Playwrights. Currently, Writers Collective (Orange Tree Theatre). Ghost Stories by Candlelight (Hightide/The Globe), Room to Escape (BBC Arts), Blud (The Otherroom). Supported by The Peggy Ramsay Foundation.
Charlotte Bennett is an award winning theatre director and joined Paines Plough as Joint Artistic Director 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 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, directing and programming. For Soho Theatre 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 the playwriting competition the Verity Bargate Award. Prior to this she was Artistic Director of Forward Theatre Project; an artists’ collective she founded and through which she directed plays at venues including the National Theatre, York Theatre Royal, Northern Stage, Derby Theatre, Live Theatre and The Lowry. Charlotte also held the role of Producer for theatre company RashDash for 4 years where she toured experimental new theatre around the UK and internationally.
Samuel Armfield
Samuel graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Theatre includes: An Enemy of the People (West End), Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads (Chichester Festival Theatre). Television includes: Big Boys S2 (Channel 4), FBI: International (CBS).
Debra Baker
Theatre includes: Frankie and Johnny in the Clare de Lune (The Bridge Theatre, Brussels), This Might Not Be It (Bush Theatre), Glacier (Old Fire Station, Oxford), Orlando (West End), SAD (Omnibus Theatre, Clapham), The Witchfinder’s Sister (Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch), Big Guns (Yard Theatre), Home Theatre (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Radiant Vermin (Soho Theatre/New York). Television includes: Supacell (Netflix), Dr Who (BBC/Disney), It’s A Sin (Channel 4), King Gary, Holby City (BBC1), Home (Channel 4), Coronation Street (ITV1), Call The Midwife (BBC1), Doctors (BBC1), Sliced (UKTV), Close to the Enemy (BBC1), The Five (Sky1), Phoneshop (Ch4). Film includes: Re-Awakening, Body of Water, London Road, Lie Low, 90 Minutes and Night Bus. Radio includes: The Shell Seekers, Dr Faustus, Home Front, Charles Paris, Jane Eyre, The Forsyte Saga, The Periodic Table, Inspector Chen, To Hull & Back (BBC Radio 4).
Nicole Sawyerr
Nicole Sawyerr is an actor and director from north-west London. She trained at ArtsEd. Theatre includes: Wuthering Heights (China Plate/Royal & Derngate); Don Quixote (Perth Theatre); Road (Northern Stage); Much Ado About Nothing (RSC); Beneath the City (Birmingham Rep); Hansel & Gretel: Fairytale Detectives (Theatr Clwyd); The Croydon Avengers (Oval House/Maya Productions); The Fairy Tale Revolution, The Words Are Coming Now, Boom, Do You Pray (Theatre 503); Where De Mangoes Grow (The Pleasance, London); Aladdin (Perth Theatre); Miss-Able (Arcola Theatre); Beam Me Upperthorpe (Migration Matters Festival/Paperfinch Theatre); After Orlando (Finborough Theatre); Those Who Trespass, The Path (HighTide Theatre Festival). Film, television & voiceover includes: EastEnders (BBC); The Bin Bag Girls (Short Film); Athena (Netflix). Directing credits include: Do We Have To Go Home? (Omnibus Theatre / Unshaded), The Importance of Being Earnest (dir. Scott LeCrass, Play in the Park Productions).
