Theatre Royal partners with Pleasance Theatre for Edinburgh National Partnerships Programme

For the fourth year running, Theatre Royal Plymouth (TRP) is proud to partner with Pleasance Theatre for the Edinburgh National Partnerships programme. The Edinburgh National Partnerships programme works with national producing houses to support extraordinary work around the UK and Northern Ireland.

This year, Maybe You Like It’s Down To Chance has been selected as TRP’s partnership production. Down To Chance offers a heartwarming portrait of a community in crisis in 1964 Alaska, as the protagonists find themselves at the centre of a remarkable relief effort with the whole world listening.

Down To Chance will rehearse and preview at TRP and in London, venue to be announced, before a full festival run at Beside (Pleasance Courtyard) as a part of the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe.

Plymouth audiences can see Down To Chance, before it goes to Edinburgh Fringe, in The Lab from Wednesday 02 July to Friday 04 July.

Tom Jackson-Greaves, said: “We are thrilled to be supporting Maybe You Like It and their production of Down To Chance through the Edinburgh National Partnership. In collaboration with Pleasance Theatre we look forward to the show previewing at TRP before further dates in London and its run at the internationally renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

“Theatre Royal Plymouth is passionate about nurturing South West talent and this collaboration offers an incredible platform for artists to develop and showcase their work.”

TRP’s Lab is a performance space dedicated to cultivating creativity and providing a platform for new voices and bold ideas. The Lab also provides opportunities to present new work to audiences.

In addition to the preview performances of Down To Chance the Lab will host companies supported by New Year, New Idea. An initiative as a part of Theatre Royal Plymouth's EXPERIMENT strand of Artist Development.

EXPERIMENT supports artists and companies with funding, research and development time, space to work and the facility to present a public sharing of their work. 

Work-in-progress sharings that are being showcased in The Lab during the upcoming season are:

Closeted, Friday 16 May, 7pm

Closeted is a darkly comedic one-woman show that dives into the tangled web of secrecy, identity, and self-acceptance. Following the journey of a 30-year-old closeted lesbian, this sharp and fearless production explores the hilarious, heartbreaking, and often absurd realities of living a double life. With biting wit and raw honesty, Closeted sheds light on the struggles of coming out—when you’re no longer the age people expect you to be figuring it all out.

Giorgia Ciampi Tsolaki, Friday 23 May, 7pm

From the primordial ocean of 500 million years ago, a mollusc speaks to the human inhabitants of today’s world, reminding us how we developed sensations, emotions, motions and self-hood. This piece combines absurdism, physical theatre, Folk song, and immersive electronic soundscapes, as the shapeless mollusc sings of its evolution into the entangled life forms that make up our universe, while it creates its first shell: a spiral.

Generations of Light, Saturday 31 May, 7pm

Generation of Light is a semi-autobiographical exploration of Korean heritage and how this has evolved through the generations. Created and performed by Jung Borthwick and her family, this part theatre, part exhibition piece centres on love, acceptance, and a celebration of family and culture.

Brothers, Thursday 19 June, 7pm

Through laughter, duty and grief, this will remind us that those we lose never truly leave us- they live on in the stories we tell and the lives they’ve touched.

Pugmill, Friday 27 June, 7pm

Dance is up close and music is alive in this original work from Pugmill, a new, interdisciplinary theatre company from Dartmoor National Park. The company launches this Summer into the South West and establishes its dynamic re-telling of history which puts all things Queer on Devon’s map. Come and join us for this genre-bending work in, what promises to be, an explosive night.

Information about Down To Chance:

Down To Chance by Maybe You Like It, Wednesday 02 July, 7pm

A part-time radio reporter, her teenage intern, a general on leave, and a local hobbyist find themselves at the centre of a remarkable relief effort. Genie Chance, live on air, must take unimaginable risks to save her community from chaos.

Based on the incredible true story of the Great Alaskan Earthquake, Down to Chance is a heartwarming portrait of a community in crisis with the whole world listening in. Maybe You Like It’s madcap new show promises frenetic action, frantic multi-roling, and immersive live sound.

To find out more about The Lab and all it has to offer, visit: https://theatreroyal.com/take-part/artist-development-experiment-2/#the-lab