In 1997 they lost the use of Quakers Friars and co-produced four plays with Bristol Old Vic, which were also performed at The Talbot Inn, Mells in Somerset.

Bristol architect George Ferguson made the first floor of an abandoned tobacco factory in Southville available to Show of Strength in 1998[7] and the company succeeded in making this into a new theatre venue, the Tobacco Factory Theatre, for South Bristol, which it remains to this day.

In three years they produced eleven play including two news works by Peter Nichols and the acclaimed The Wills' Girls by Amanda Whittington which was revived in 2003 and was also staged at the Dublin Fringe Festival.

commissioned as part of the 2007 commemoration of the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1807 was a street performance of ten short plays in June 2008 by writers including Mustapha Matura, Catherine Johnson and Sandi Toksvig.

[11] In 2008 Show of Strength suffered a major funding cut from Bristol City Council, but then received a temporary extension until March 2009.