BWW catches up with Laura Horton to chat about bringing Breathless to the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Tell us a bit about Breathless.
Breathless is about Sophie, a woman in her late-thirties exploring long repressed sides of herself. But a secret she's keeping from those she loves, and even from herself, threatens to unravel it all, she has to make a choice about who or what she will give up.
What was the inspiration behind it?
Breathless is an exploration of the knife-edge of hoarding, from the joy to the addiction and suffocating shame. Based on my own experience of clothes hoarding. It's also about bisexual exploration at a later age, as something that's been repressed. It's a very personal piece of writing.
Why did you feel it was important to tell this story?
Narratives about hoarders are extreme in art and media. I think it's important to explore other stories and show people who are at various stages of hoarding behaviours. I hope that it might help audiences to see themselves in the work or learn about hoarding which is still very under-researched and stigmatised.
Who would you like to come and see it?
Ideally anyone over 12 years old! Particularly though people who have a troubled relationship with their things, anyone at a turning point wanting to change their life.
What would you like audiences to take away from Breathless?
Hope. I really want audiences to feel like change is possible. I'd love it if they laugh, are entertained, learn something new. I'm so excited to get this play on its feet.
