Breathless

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I’ve held sales, donated more to charity and intend to keep chipping away at my possessions. I know I’ll never be a minimalist, but speaking openly about this has helped and I’m aware that these instincts will raise their intrusive selves during times of stress, grief, change and instability, things that will come for all of us at some stage. Working with Pleasance Theatre Trust offers us such a vital opportunity to support artists from the far South West. Plymouth is a vibrant hub of creative talent but it can be hard to export work further afield, so the partnership is an invaluable pipeline that offer artists exposure, support and a chance to present their work to a range of audiences and industry in Edinburgh.”Ben Lyon-Ross, Talent Development Producer, Theatre Royal Plymouth.

Here at TRP we couldn’t be happier to be transferring BREATHLESS into the Soho Theatre, following its massive success at the Fringe last year. BREATHLESS is a homegrown show that was conceived and developed through our artists’ development programmes. It speaks to our ambitions to make exciting new work in Plymouth that we can share across the country. Laura’s writing is tender, funny, and quietly powerful. The play has moved and delighted audiences across Plymouth and Edinburgh and will continue to resonate wherever it goes.” Ben Lyon-Ross Head of Artist Development Produced in National Partnership with Pleasance & Theatre Royal Plymouth. The National Partnerships see the Pleasance work with important venues nationwide to identify, recognise and fund extraordinary work from across the UK to be presented at the festival.Why couldn’t I part with all this stuff? It felt like I was letting my dreams go, when in truth, if I could remove items, I’d be making space for things to happen. I did still love shopping, and I think I always will, but trying to organise and throw things away… not so much.

The female monologue is a well-established contemporary theatre form, but often the content is predictable and sometimes clichéd. No such doubts come to mind with Laura Horton’s latest play, Breathless, a semi-autobiographical 70-minute account of hoarding clothes. Horton describes herself as having been “on the knife-edge” of compulsive collecting, in denial for a long time because of media portrayals of the condition are so extreme. Her one-woman show explores an original subject with an impressively tight control over language and storytelling. And it has its funny moments too. Opening up to new experiences in her late thirties, Sophie is exploring long-repressed sides of herself. When a secret she’s keeping from those she loves, and even from herself, threatens to unravel it all, she has to make a choice. Who or what will she decide to give up? I don't know really, I haven't been to many. But it's a whoooole month, and there's an endurance test in that. If you can get to the end of that, covered in sweat and tears and rain and remorse and STILL believe in your show, you know you've made something worthwhile.

Heading to Soho Theatre following its Fringe First winning run in Edinburgh, Breathless is a funny, honest and stylish exploration of the knife-edge of hoarding, from the joy to the addiction and suffocating shame. From Laura Horton's (Plymouth Laureate of Words) own experience of clothes hoarding. What happens when the things we covet hide us from ourselves?

Even the samples themselves were no longer a guaranteed adrenaline boost; she once left a Merchant Archive sale with two jumpsuits near-identical in design, afterwards breaking down in distress knowing "I shouldn’t have done it”. When Mandi explained this I nodded, as I felt I’d reached that point, too. I couldn’t even find half of the clothes I’d bought, so how could I get pleasure from them? For me, I find things safe, comfortable and easier than people. I had created a little universe for myself but, rather than opening up my world, I felt suffocated by it.

I was fortunate enough to work on some online projects, which was great. And some live work which was streamed. It's changed the ways actors audition and are considered for work. Some of that's good. It opens up casting to more actors (you can watch 20 tapes in the time you meet 6 people) but it's harder to get a sense of working with a person over a video call. So, I'm even more chuffed that Laura and Steph (writer/producer and director respectively) took a chance on an actor they'd never met. Laura Horton is Plymouth Laureate of Words, 2021-22, the first playwright and woman in the position. In 2020 Horton wrote and produced her first film, A Summer of Birds, Toast of the Fringe winner. Plays include: Labyrinth Diet, The Space, London 2021, ONCOMM winner; Triptych, Theatre Royal Plymouth, 2021; Giddy Tuppy, Living with a mental health issue is not something that is easily and neatly resolved, it’s a constant process of work and self-acceptance. This show reflects this through its openness and generosity. Breathless is on at 3pm, Bunker 2 at the Pleasance Courtyard. There is also a podcast about hoarding we're dropping alongside the play. There is also a journalist friend who (spoiler) promises Sophie anonymity in a story about hoarding, then splashes her name and photo all over a national newspaper. The betrayal hits so hard in performance that I wanted to implore the fictional Sophie not to believe her friend, as she does, that it’s all his editors’ fault.

Laura Horton’s poignant comic monologue “Breathless,” part of the Brits Off Broadway festival at 59E59 Theaters, finds Sophie at a breaking point. Played by Madeleine MacMahon, who gives her a nervous likability, Sophie would seem to have arrived at a joyous time in life. In her late 30s, she has a thoughtful, interesting new girlfriend, Jo, whom Sophie can envision as a long-term partner. Yet at the end of every date, she fabricates reasons Jo can’t come into her apartment. Oooo I don't like the term 'cancel culture', as so many of the people or groups that claim they've been victims of it are very much still around. I believe we should call each other out on behaviour and give one another space to learn and grow. I've appreciated it when people have done that for me.You can’t move simply between things. My flat is stuffed with possessions and the recollections I attach to them.