Image: Barbican Theatre

The largest theatre and live performance festival ever seen in Plymouth has been launched this week.

Plymouth Fringe Festival is showcasing over one hundred acts in Theatre Royal Plymouth, The House and more unusual spaces such as pubs and woodlands.

Tom Nicholas, a co-producer of the fringe, said: “The thing we were most keen to do was set up a theatre festival in the city which allowed us to make a noise about live performance in Plymouth and to throw open our amazing venues to artists across the country.

“We’ve got a real mix of work across the festival and I think anyone would be hard pushed to not find at least a handful of shows they’re excited by.”

There are acts from Plymouth, Exeter and further afield with artists travelling down from Bristol, London and Manchester.

Also performing is Joseph Wilde’s Cuddles, which is heading to a three week run off-Broadway in New York after its Devon tour.

Mr Nicholas added: “Having that eclectic mix in such a small space of time is the really exciting thing about having a festival as opposed to a traditional season of work.”

Plymouth made a failed bid to be City of Culture 2017, but Mr Nicholas said that much of the work for the Fringe has emerged from this attempt.

The festival is being by Toast, a new theatre development organisation for Plymouth, in partnership with Theatre Royal Plymouth, Barbican Theatre and Peninsula Arts.

Plymouth Fringe Festival runs 25-30 May. For more information click here.