What a year 2021 has been! We first of all want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported us throughout another, at times, challenging and uncertain year. Our audiences, colleagues, stakeholders, participants, young people, and friends have been fantastic and are the reason why we do what we do.

Here’s just a handful of some of the amazing things we’ve achieved this year:

• We launched our Pay What You Decide pricing initiative in May with Scratchworks Theatre Company’s The Grimm Sisters show which we took to Teats Hill Amphitheatre. Since then we have held 52 more Pay What You Decide performances and events offering audiences the opportunity to pay whatever they feel an event is worth to them (including £0) with music, comedy, dance, theatre, drag, cabaret and more. 

• Over the summer of 2021 we launched publicly the first version of our PETROL HEADZ project with the modified car scene and surrounding street culture. Between June and 28 August there were 18 performances ‘toured’ across Plymouth where we engaged with more than 4000 people ‘live’ and 30,000 people ‘digitally’ with performances at Plymouth Piazza and THE DEPO (all free or Pay What You Decide), plus giving paid employment to 54 freelance creative and crew members, 4 paid internships and opportunities to 50 young people. Read our PETROL HEADZ impact report here 

• 1300 residents of the Keyham and St Judes communities were entertained in a safe, socially distanced way and without them having to leave their properties, with our seaside themed Giant Backalley Giant Puppet Parade in June and October (watch a film of the parade in Keyham created by Plymouth Culture here

• Our ReBels Talent Development training sessions (for ages 12-25) had an incredible first year with 119 places taken in sessions mixing dance, music, theatre, production, technical, digital, writing and more. We’d like to say a huge thanks to our incredible team of practitioners and our ReBels who adapted and remained positive and very creative throughout the lockdowns and when adapting to engaging via zoom, then moving back to in person sessions with social distancing and everything that came with it. 

• In September we were selected as one of eight companies commissioned by BBC Arts and One Dance UK to create a new dance film as part of Dance Passion 2022. The film (Neon Romance) was filmed in November and will be launched on BBC iPlayer in Spring 2022.

• In February we commissioned three local filmmakers to produce three short films with the Plymouth parkour, dance and skateboard scenes. The three ‘Plymouth In Its Prime ’films were launched in April and have been viewed more than 4000 times. Watch the films here

• We launched ReBels Music in March with 13 free online sessions, where young people aged 15-25 could learn, develop and create with four leading industry experts in music production, song writing, vocal technique, composing, beat boxing and more (131 places booked in total) 

• 900 people watched our Pay What You Decide ‘Sleighing It’ festive cabaret shows which featured 26 local artists and some of our ReBels entertaining Plymouth with music, dance, drag, comedy, burlesque, poetry and more from 15-23 December  

• We’ve held 11 ReBels ‘Playground’ events and workshops across the city including Prime Saturday at Prime Skatepark, Challenge Accepted with Make Amplified, busking and flash mobs across Plymouth City Centre, puppet making workshops, and an end of year ‘FUSE Jam’ with local emerging artists. 

• We presented 14 more free ReBels masterclasses with industry experts covering topics such as live event production, stage management, music licensing, film making with no budget, recording an album at home, finance for the self employed and top tips for freelancers in the arts. Watch them (and more) here

So what’s next?

Mon 10 Jan – Start of new ReBels Talent Development Training Spring term

We changed things for the second year of ReBels  (starting in September) splitting sessions into 12-15s, 14-18s, 18-25s and opening our ReBels Music Studio to allow weekly music production, composing and creative  sessions for ages 15-25s. In the spring term we’ll introduce new sessions including Acting For Film, Express Yourself and Music & Podcast Production.  

More info / sign up here

Sat 15 Jan – John Robertson’s ‘The Dark Room’ (Pay What You Decide) 

The world’s only live-action, text-based adventure game. It’s strange, insane and addictive. It’s a comedy night, a gameshow and a pantomime all in one. How do you play? The audience is trapped in a retro videogame with a sadistic end-of-level boss. Choose your options, survive the abuse simulator that is the improv comedy overlord John Robertson, and escape to win £1000 – or, be brutally murdered by the rest of the crowd! Ages 18+. 

Book tickets here

Fri 28 Jan – Red Dragonly Productions ‘Ballad Of Mulan’ (Pay What You Decide)

For ten years Mulan disguised as a man, has fought for the Chinese Empire. Now the fighting is coming to an end, one last battle and she will be going home – but can she return to her old life, become a woman again. A search for identity in a violent world. We bring you the real Chinese heroine that inspired Disney’s animation and live-feature Mulan. Ages 10+ 

Book tickets here

February – launch of Neon Romance as part of Dance Passion on BBC i Player

Neon Romance brings 5 individuals together for a night on top of show cars – sharing grooves, headlights, and love. Afrobeat, Breaking, Chicago footwork, Contemporary and Parkour. Celebrating the neon lights, shimmering car-shells, whirring engines, and spinning bodies before pulling the audience into a slippery blurry world of light and sound. Read the full story here

Fri 11 Feb –  Caroline Horton ‘All Of Me’ (Pay What You Decide) 

Written and performed by Olivier Award nominee Caroline Horton – an intimate and absurd exploration of wanting to live, wanting to die and what can happen if we sit together with the dark. Grudgingly hopeful, occasionally funny, Caroline reunites with director Alex Swift (Mess) to bring you an unapologetically dark show about dark things. Ages 14+ 

Book tickets here

Fri 18 Feb – Chhaya Collective ‘KHAOS’ double bill (Pay What You Decide) 

Inspired by the Women’s March, Chhaya’s double bill centres around female empowerment and freedom of speech. The evening will feature six dancers and three live musicians, celebrating what it is to be a woman; drawing on ancient stories and oppressive archetypes to bring audiences of all ages a highly energetic, stirring and visceral dance performance that rejects order in favour of complexity and chaos. 

Book tickets here

Fri 11 Mar – Ahir Shah ‘Dress’ UK Stand Up Tour (£13.50) 

As seen on Mock The Week, Live At the Apollo, Have I Got News For You, and The Mash Report. Featuring his signature blend of philosophical inquiry, personal examination, and sweet gags, Double Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Ahir Shah returns to stand-up with a new show about significance, insignificance, and scurvy.

Book tickets here

Fri 18 March – Hannah Kumari & WoLab ‘Eng-er-land’ (Pay What You Decide) 

Last year England made it to the semi finals of Euro 96, Gina G came third in Eurovision and 13 year-old Lizzie went to her first in-person football game: Coventry vs. Manchester City. Not the Man City of today, oil and superstars, but the old Man City – a bit rubbish, but with good fans. Lizzie fell in love with the beautiful game that day, and she’s been obsessed ever since. But then something happens to make her question her place in the stands. ENG-ER-LAND is an energetic play about who’s really on your team.

Book tickets here

Fri 13 May – Luke Wright UK Tour (Pay What You Decide) 

WINNER Saboteur Award for Best Spoken Word Performer 2021, John Cooper Clarke’s regular warm-up guy writes poems that are tender, riotous, caustic and romantic then delivers them with the ferocity and panache of a raconteur at the top of his game. This is an ALL-NEW show with deliciously funny poems set against a backdrop of pandemic politics, ageing parents, and the endless, droning culture war.

Book tickets here

Fri 27 May – Larry Dean ‘Fudnut’ UK Stand Up Tour (£16.50/£14.50)

Double Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominee and star of Live At The Apollo, Larry Dean, returns to Barbican Theatre with a brand-new show of “confessional storytelling at its funniest” (Herald ★★★★★). As seen on Michael McIntyre’s Big Show, Mock The Week and Roast Battle.

 Book tickets here

We’ll also be popping up across the city with more ReBels Playground events including busking, flashmobs and more live entertainment, plus Prime Saturday events at Prime Skatepark and FUSE Jams at Barbican Theatre. Plus we’ll be programming  more innovative and exciting shows at our Barbican and other spaces in the city and developing our creativity with our exciting partners from the region. 

We hope you have a wonderful festive season and a Happy, Healthy New Year.

Stay safe and we look forward to seeing you in 2022.

The Barbican Theatre Team

Ps. You can support our work with local young and emerging artists by donating to our charity  – any amount will really help to keep offering classes and performances for free, as Pay What You Decide or at a very low price. Please donate here.