Paines Plough has received a Scotsman Fringe First Award for its production of Alexandra Wood’s The Initiate.
The play is one of four productions taking place in the company’s brand new Roundabout theatre, a portable in-the-round auditorium.
This new work is directed by George Perrin who, with Paines Plough co-artistic director James Grieve, has said, “We are completely thrilled to have received this award. It feels particularly special to receive it in our 40th anniversary year and for a show taking place in Roundabout, our beautiful pop-up portable theatre that has been four years in development. How exciting it is that we can now take Alexandra Wood’s fantastic piece of writing all around the country and into local communities that don’t have their own theatres.”
The Initiate is the tale of a taxi-driver in East London who decides to travel to Somalia, the country of his birth, to rescue a British couple held hostage by pirates.
The writer of The Initiate is Alexandra Wood, a graduate of the MPhil in Playwriting Studies at Birmingham University and the Royal Court Young Writers’ Programme. In 2007 she won the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright.