Laura Horton, in association with Theatre Royal Plymouth, brings brazen new play Breathless to the Fringe. Laura Horton, Broadway World, 19th July 2022 Performances Date

Each piece intrinsically corresponds with a part of her, or who she wants to be one day. Giving any of them up means she then gives up on herself. This humanises hoarding and is a reminder that it can be far less severe than the cases that make it onto telly documentaries. A Q&A with Laura Horton Breathless: An Update | HoardingUK ‘Breathless’ Review: Shopping Soothes an Anxious Mind – The New York Times (nytimes.com) ABOUT THE AUTHOR Laura Horton, Plymouth Laureate of Words, is bringing her theatre piece Breathless to Edinburgh Fringe. It's a funny, honest and stylish exploration of the knife-edge of hoarding, from the joy to the addiction and suffocating shame and based on the real-life experience of writer Laura Horton. "You can't move simply between things. My flat is stuffed with possessions and the recollections I attach to them. I feel equally suffocated and sated by my cave of treasures," Horton says. We’re so excited to present Laura’s first Fringe play as part of our regional partnership. Breathless is such a unique story and one I think will not only resonate but could affect real change in people that see it.”Nic Connaughton, Head of Theatre at Pleasance Theatre Horton says, "Breathless is very personal to me, it took me a long time to realise I was hoarder as media narratives are so extreme, I hope I'm able to bring this topic to the fore through my storytelling at a festival I have loved for years."Each time I tried to let things go, I’d spend hours agonising over every single piece: the use, memory or dream I had attached to them.’ Photograph: Abbie Trayler-Smith/The Observer My early loves were comedies like Absolutely Fabulous, so Jennifer Saunders was a big one. As I got older, stand-up from Eddie Izzard and dramatic actors like Pete Postlethwaite had a range of styles to their work that I really respected. I'd still love to edge into that comedy drama TV world. I’ve worked for many years as a publicist and love amplifying the work of others, but it feels so exciting to be following my own dreams and presenting my own work this year. Breathless is very personal to me, it took me a long time to realise I was hoarder as media narratives are so extreme, I hope I’m able to bring this topic to the fore through my storytelling at a festival I have loved for years.”Laura Horton – Writer – Breathless Right there is the support everyone coming out needs from their parents, and it was these words from her mother that sees Sophie on her first date with a woman – Jo. An altogether intriguing, sympathetic, and engaging exploration of a difficult and challenging problem. " – Talkin' Broadway

The journey here is subtle. Though a particular event pushes Sophie into realising she has a problem, the process of acceptance and giving away her clothes is long and slow. This doesn’t diminish the play’s overall effect; instead it makes it seem far more real. Ultimately, I realised I wasn’t just someone with a love of clothes; I was someone for whom things were causing distress and distraction. That’s the key difference between collecting and hoarding, I think. I couldn’t move simply between things in my home, struggled to find things, and regularly found myself feeling short of breath and anxious about what I was going home to. It's like the trade show of our industry. It's where you see new work from artists and companies you love and discover brand new things you never thought you would. You learn from one another - good and bad - and it's brilliant. I want to wish Laura and the entire Production Team a successful Festival run. My hope is it begins a conversation and opens up a much greater awareness into the often-complex mental health condition of hoarding, often with other comorbidities, just to complicate the situation. Drawing on her experience of clothes hoarding, Horton has created a dark, magical story about trying to escape a world you've spent a lifetime carefully building.After Edinburgh it’s returning to two theatres in Laura’s native South West – playing at the Brewhouse Taunton on Saturday 1st October, and at Exeter’s Phoenix on Sunday 2nd October. 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. As an ex-actress myself, I am passionate about how theatre can enlighten, educate and shine a light on lives, situations and the frailty that is mankind and mental health. I was in my mid-30s when I started to confront how much I had. I was living in Plymouth and, even after selling 400 items at a clothing sale, still had a huge van stuffed to the brim. I remember a woman coming to the sale telling me to be careful, she was a psychologist and said I may feel the same rush selling as I do buying and have quite a drop afterwards. It was mostly freeing, letting things go, but I had a few wobbles, moments I wanted to stop time, take the clothes from people’s hands without having to converse about how I’d changed my mind.

Plesance Theatre Trust and Theatre Royal Plymouth are delighted to bring Breathless by Laura Horton, Plymouth Laureate of Words, to Theatre Royal Plymouth and Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Recently classed by WHO as a mental illness with connections to OCD, hoarding, explains Horton, is not always the image we see on TV of teetering masses of boxes and newspapers, carrier bags and garbage. Her protagonist, would-be writer Sophie (Madi Macmahon), just loves a bargain: sample sales and charity shops; the anticipation of the hunt; the delight of the discount; the joy of ownership regardless of whether the designer creations fit or suit. And then there is the shame of a suffocatingly huge amount of beautiful unworn clothes crammed into Sophie’s living space. Breathless is a funny, honest and stylish exploration of the knife-edge of hoarding, from the joy to the addiction and suffocating shame. Based on the real-life experience of writer Laura Horton’s, own experience of clothes hoarding, the work is a dark, magical story about trying to escape a world you’ve spent a lifetime carefully building.The Space, ONCOMM winner, 2020; This I Believe, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Exeter Phoenix, 2019. She is currently commissioned by Theatre Royal Plymouth. She 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. 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

Jo seems great and has taken a genuine interest in Sophie. They’ve been on lots of dates, Sophie gets butterflies and it’s obvious that the two have a real connection. There’s just one problem, Jo wants Sophie to invite her in. Laura Horton is a writer and the current Plymouth Laureate of Words, the first playwright Laureate. Her plays include: Labyrinth Diet at The Space, OFFCOMM winner; Breathless, Pleasance at Edinburgh Fringe, 2022, winner of a Fringe First, Pleasance and Theatre Royal Plymouth Partnership, Popcorn and BBC Writer’s Room finalist, Holden Street and Scottish Mental Health Awards shortlist. Breathless was staged at Soho Theatre in 2023 and will be in New York as part of Brits Off Broadway until 7th May 2023. Short plays include: Come to Where I’m From, commissioned by Paines Plough; Giddy Tuppy, TRP and The Space; Bloody Men, Minituarists at The Arcola and TRP; This I Believe, Downstage Write at Exeter Phoenix and TRP.was listed in The Stage 100 in 2021 for her project Theatre Stories CIC. Breathless was selected for the Pleasance and Theatre Royal Plymouth Regional Partnership. When she did get home, seeing everything spilling out of her childhood bedroom and into the neighbouring rooms was “really horrifying,” she says. However, something looms over her life that she can’t bear to let go of – the vast collection of designer clothes that takes up every spare inch of her new flat. The urge to hold onto these items that she sees as an extension of herself is all-consuming, but she also really wants to invite her new girlfriend over. As a depiction of bisexuality and queer experience, Breathless is nuanced and honest. In Stephanie Kempson’s well-paced and absorbing production, MacMahon plays Sophie and the other characters with an impressive clarity and precision. Her mild West Country accent works for the scenes with her Mum, who lives in Plymouth, and she uses other accents effectively for other characters. Verity Standen’s music accompanies the character’s emotional world and the simple set avoids literalism. First seen at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth last year, and successful at Edinburgh, this is a welcome London transfer for a show that, while admittedly a bit slender, is nevertheless both heartfelt and heartwarming. 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”.