Theatre artist and trained actress Sharron Devine grew up on the Hilltown, and after 20 years away, she returned to her roots to bring her unique brand of performance home in 2016.
Now Sharron has been invited to the UK City of Culture 2021 celebrations in Coventry this week to showcase what Dundee has to offer.
Her City of Culture project, The Only Way Out Is In, is the culmination of over a decade of experience in what Sharron calls “human-specific theatre”.
For those of us not in the know, “human-specific theatre” is a performance designed to be taken in by very small audiences – usually fewer than ten people, and sometimes just one at a time.
Sharron has worked with Danish theatre pioneers Cantabile 2 for several years, developing similar projects, as well as undertaking a decade of independent research into immersive and sensory-led practices.
“I got a job with (Cantabile 2) in The Arches about 10 years ago,” explains Sharron. “And I thought it would just be like any other job. But I completely fell in love with their practice.
“It wasn’t just a one-night thing – it was a full-on love affair. I got swept away by working so closely with my audiences.”
Serving up theatre in converted chippy
For her Coventry show, Sharron will take one person at a time into a theatre in a converted chippy in the centre of Coventry’s City Arcade. Together they will explore the story Sharron has put together, and, she hopes, discover something new in it with each performance.
“For Coventry, the prompt was the idea of ‘Humanistan‘ – so human, and then ‘-istan’ means country or place,” says Sharron. “What would you want the world to look like if it didn’t have these systemic structures of nationalities or governments? What if we were all just human beings?”
The theatre-maker says she will have performed the sold-out show more than 20 times by the time the festivities end, and each time will be a different experience because the audience member is so central to the piece.
The 20-minute piece is interactive, with the journey shaped by the choices of the person she’s performing to.
“I’m very interested in systems,” Sharron explains. “Within systems, the choices we make are what make us human – but also, some people don’t have choices, or aren’t able to make them, depending on where they sit in the world.
“In this piece, people will make choices which I hope they then take with them outwith the experience.”
Making Space for artists in Dundee
As well as making theatre pieces like The Only Way Out Is In and her Dundee-themed project, Hulltoon Spacehopper, Sharron is the founder and owner of Broughty Ferry’s charming Studio Space Art.
Studio Space is a 19th Century house in the Ferry which Sharron and her husband Ben restored, and which they hope to use to provide space for art and artists in the city.
“When I left and went down to London to train to be an actress, at that time there wasn’t much going on here in Dundee,” admits Sharron.
“I’ve always had one eye on Dundee, but the last couple of years, and being back, have given me a real opportunity to focus on what I want to bring to the city,” she goes on.
“Our Space was kind of a response to lack of space in the city for artists. We set it up around the end of 2017. It’s an old house, and we use it to do all kinds of weird and wonderful things – inviting artists to do residences and loads of grassroots stuff.
“We’re just trying to respond to what folk are saying isn’t here already, and what they’d like to see more of.”
Sharron also reveals that one lucky Dundonian will get the chance to go down to Coventry and experience The Only Way Out Is In and the City of Culture celebrations for themselves, as part of the collaboration with Theatre Absolute Coventry.
Speaking on the idea of a “city of culture”, Sharron says: “Well what is a city of culture? It’s just lots of things going on. And our approach in Dundee is, ‘if it’s not here, let’s put it here’.”
The Only Way Out Is In will run in the Coventry City Arcade from October 20-23.