Breathless

Product Information

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.” 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. She sought help from a psychotherapist, who made her realise that, while there had been no single trauma causing what was by now fully-blown OCD, shopping had become Horton’s coping mechanism - an instant way, when her ex-boyfriend was abusive, or when a friend died suddenly, “to generate a nice feeling for myself… it just got out of hand.”

Breathless is a beautifully written monologue performed by Madeline MacMahon and written by Laura Horton.I urge any readers of this newsletter visiting this amazing Scottish city to see ‘Breathless’ and put the word out there. There is still so much stigma around hoarding and it remains a very misunderstood mental health condition. Many wrongly still think it is a lifestyle choice!

seeing the Care Bears live. They came up the aisle and pulled my sister out to take her on stage and I was TERRIFIED. I bumped into a woman on one occasion who was wearing an outfit I’d sold her; she gushed at me about how much she loved it and it filled me with warmth. I knew my things were affecting my self-esteem. I was working all hours and in any free time I’d go to sample sales, trawl charity shops, find outfits that represented who I wanted to be when things finally fell into place. After I moved home, I remember sitting among my clothes in my childhood bedroom, like a cocoon but, instead of feeling safe, I felt I might disappear. 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.

Preview

Based on her own experience, Horton’s beautiful script weaves Sophie’s building obsession and life story with the burgeoning love with Jo, whose wardrobe consists of an old school tie, three pairs of shoes (and one on we assume) and the bare minimum of clothing on one short rail.

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 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”. 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? My place on HoardingUK’s Charity Board is to occasionally contribute and chip in with my personal experience of hoarding. Our voices need to be heard! T he hour long play deftly conveys how hoarding and the shame of the condition gets in the way of personal relationships and those that we love, often keeping them at bay.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. In those early years, some of the thrill came from finding name brands that would help her fit in better with the kids at school. But she has always had an eye for fashion, no matter how impractical. 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.

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 Space, ONCOMM winner, 2020; This I Believe, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Exeter Phoenix, 2019. She is currently commissioned by Theatre Royal Plymouth. She

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 An altogether intriguing, sympathetic, and engaging exploration of a difficult and challenging problem. " – Talkin' Broadway Horton has a string of awards for her work, and Breathless is set to be another testament to her skill.