Paines Plough announces full tour dates for Zia Ahmed’s debut play I Wanna Be Yours
Paines Plough and Tamasha have today announced the full UK tour dates for I WANNA BE YOURS. A tender, funny, lyrical play about finding love and holding onto it with everything you’ve got, I WANNA BE YOURS is the debut play from London Laureate and Roundhouse Poetry Slam Champion Zia Ahmed. In partnership with Tamasha and directed by former Paines Plough trainee director Anna Himali Howard, the play will tour to Canada Water, Barking, Luton, Whitehaven, Liverpool, Lyme Regis, Ventnor, Brighton, Bracknell, St Albans, Havant, Peterborough, Canterbury, Bordon, Tunbridge Wells, Guildford, Bolton, Middlesbrough, Banbury, Bromsgrove, Derby, Beverley, Doncaster, Maidenhead, Norwich, Lincoln, Manchester, Preston, Washington, Selby, Halifax and Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Ella is from Yorkshire. Haseeb is from London. They order a pizza. House red for Ella. Hot chocolate for Haseeb.
“I think I’m falling in love with you.”
People and playlists. Christmas and Eid. Travelcards and Megabuses. London to Leeds.
Love is more than just a game for two. Especially when there’s an elephant in the room.
Zia is from North West London. He is a London Laureate, having been shortlisted to be the Young Poet Laureate for London 2015/16. He is a former Roundhouse Poetry Slam champion. Zia was Paines Plough’s Channel 4 Playwright in Residence 2016/2017.
Anna is a director and theatremaker. She was Paines Plough’s Trainee Director in 2016. She is also an Alumni Artist at the Gate Theatre and an alumnus of the Birmingham REP Foundry.
Her work as a Director includes A SMALL PLACE by Jamaica Kincaid (Gate Theatre), ALBATROSS by Isley Lynn for NEW (RWCMD/Paines Plough/Gate Theatre), LIFE IS NO LAUGHING MATTER by Demi Nandhra (Birmingham REP/mac Birmingham), 20B by Jane English (Birmingham REP/CPT). As a theatremaker work includes MAHABHARAT/A by Anna Himali Howard and Zarina Muhammad (Camden People’s Theatre), THE BEANFIELD by Breach Theatre (New Diorama, National tour 2016). Anna was Associate Director on FLEABAG by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Drywrite/Soho Theatre international tour) and Assistant Director on OTHELLO, directed by Ellen McDougall (Shakespeare’s Globe) and IN THE NIGHT TIME (Before the Sun Rises) by Nina Segal, directed by Ben Kidd (Gate Theatre).
I WANNA BE YOURS was developed with support from the Channel 4 Playwrights’ Scheme.
