Our Space is a creative programme supporting adults facing multiple and complex challenges. It provides experiential interventions and transformative experiences that address issues surrounding mental health and well-being, community integration, resilience, and hope.
The programme provides individuals with free, regular and meaningful activity that contributes to recovery and rehabilitation.
Interested in finding out more?
Please call or text 07732 499859 or email ourspace@theatreroyal.com.
To register your interest/make a referral please click on the button below.
You can also register via the phone or call and arrange a time to pop in and see us to complete the form.
“For two hours in the week, I’m not depressed, for two hours I’m the person I could be, the person I want to be, the real me!”
Our Space participant
Supported by National Lottery Community Fund.
Supported by the Veterans’ Foundation.
In partnership with the Ministry of Justice.
Our Space is a creative programme supporting adults facing multiple and complex challenges. It provides experiential interventions and transformative experiences that address issues surrounding mental health and well-being, community integration, resilience, and hope.
Our Space provides individuals with regular and meaningful activity, giving their week a focus and purpose, which contributes to their recovery and rehabilitation.
We use drama as a tool to play, offering people opportunities to escape their reality, to re-imagine themselves and to connect with others.
Who is Our Space for?
Adults (18+) with lived experience of homelessness, mental health issues, substance misuse, reoffending or feel socially isolated for other reasons benefit from the Our Space programme.
Our Space has been shaped over 16+ years, working in partnership with services and placing the lived experience of participants at the heart of the work.
This has been made possible thanks to National Lottery funding.
Our Outcomes 2024/2025
90% have gained self-esteem since working with us
97% have reported an increase in their confidence
84% feel more hopeful about their future
88% feel able to work well with others
92% feel part of a positive community
“It is a safe place where it doesn’t matter how I turn up – I know I’ll be supported. Staff are awesome, super supportive and go the extra mile when I’m struggling. I feel like I’ve found a community, and I’m part of a family even when I have to leave. I felt socially alone before, so I really appreciate the opportunity.”
Participant
The Our Space Production Group is open exclusively to long-standing members who have progressed through the Our Space programme. This group offers a space for deeper artistic exploration and collaboration, where participants work alongside theatre professionals to devise and present bold new work. Sessions focus on advanced creative and technical skills, teamwork, and shared ownership of the creative process.
Through this work, members continue to develop confidence, leadership, and artistic voice, culminating in high-quality performances that challenge perceptions and celebrate the power of lived experience.
Our Space 2025 Production – Domestication
“Giving everyone space to bring themselves to the project fully and the high quality of the production design gave everyone the chance to really shine”
Audience member
Our Space 2024 Production – Pierless
“I loved the whole process. The fact that we were able to develop it together, it wasn’t prewritten, our ideas were accepted and developed.”
Cast member
Armed Forces Choir
Meeting every Thursday evening, the Armed Forces Choir brings people together through the power of song. Open to all abilities, the choir offers a supportive environment to connect, have fun, and experience the positive impact of collective music-making. No prior singing experience is needed, just enthusiasm and a willingness to join in.
The choir also performs at a variety of events and venues across the city throughout the year, proudly representing the Armed Forces community and sharing their voices with wider audiences. These performances are uplifting celebrations of community, resilience, and togetherness.
Choir rehearsals will take place on Thursdays, 7–9pm at TR2, 12 Neptune Park, Plymouth PL4 0SJ.
To find out more, please contact us via email.
Armed Forces Comedy Club
Laughter is at the heart of our quarterly Comedy Workshops and Comedy Nights, which bring together Armed Forces participants to explore the art of stand-up and sketch comedy.
These workshops, led by professional comedians, culminate in relaxed comedy club nights, taking place in The Lab at Theatre Royal Plymouth, where participants can share the stage with established performers, or simply enjoy an evening of entertainment and camaraderie.
For more information and to register your place please get in touch below.
Armed Forces Production Group
Our Production Group, meeting on Monday evenings, invites members of the Armed Forces community to develop creative projects in collaboration with professional theatre artists. Together, participants devise and present original work, building skills in performance, storytelling, teamwork, and creative expression.
Download our Evaluation Report
Our Space at HMP Channings Wood
As part of Our Space, Theatre Royal Plymouth worked with men at HMP Channings Wood through a programme of weekly, skills-based creative workshops, using theatre as a space to build confidence, develop relationships and explore identity, choice and new possibilities.
In 2026, the group created and performed The Orchard, a new piece of theatre developed collaboratively through the workshops. The performance brought together a small group of men who committed to the process, taking them from weekly sessions to the experience of performing their work in front of an invited audience inside the prison.
The impact of the project went beyond the performance itself. Participants spoke about pushing themselves beyond their comfort zones, building confidence, finding moments of joy and creating positive memories. For some, the experience offered a chance to be seen as a person rather than defined by their circumstances.
“I think I’ve really grown through this process… it’s brought a whole new meaning to my life. Something I’ll take with me for the rest of my life.”
Participant and Cast Member
The Orchard
The Orchard is part of the wider Our Space story.
Alongside the Community and Armed Forces strands, the work made in HMP Channings Wood has contributed to The Body Measures Time, Our Space’s 2026 production exploring journeys of identity, connection, separation and return.
The Orchard was created in response to Homer’s The Odyssey, taking inspiration from its themes of journey, obstacles, and home, as well as their own experiences of how our the prison systems can work against incarcerated men once released.
The obstacles and positions of power were presented through interpretations of Greek Gods including Hermes, Zeus, Poseidon, Dionysus, and Hades. The Gods used their power to test newly a released prisoner, using comedy and their stories to communicate the challenges prisoners face both inside and outside of prison. The performance was attended by 100 people from Theatre Royal Plymouth, the HMP Channings Wood staff and other inmates.
While our work at HMP Channings Wood has now come to an end, The Orchard, as well as 2024’s production Banged Up and 2025’s production These Walls remain an important part of the Our Space journey, a reminder of what can happen when people are given the opportunity to create, collaborate and be heard.
“Emotionally, it’s been just the most amazing thing I’ve done in prison… in my life, actually.”
Participant and Cast Member
Young Company Our Space
Young people will engage in weekly theatre-based workshops delivered by industry professionals. The workshops will focus on wellbeing, confidence, communication, and lots of fun!