Sanctuary: ‘It’s really amazing to see the space you are providing’

The Bristol-based poets were in Poole as part of the Sanctuary artist development residency in which Lighthouse makes space available to artists to develop ideas, write, rehearse and play. Four days of writing and workshopping have seen the latest version of Girlhood On T take significant steps towards becoming a full-length 60-minute small-scale theatre show.

“We started this a year and a half ago,” says Eryn. “I approached Aish because I already had a solo show that I was making about my experience of gender dysphoria, but I hated performing on my own.

“It’s been a hard topic to write about, partly because of everything that’s happening in the world, but also our from own experiences.”

Aish agrees: “Part way through us writing, I realised more stuff about my own gender and started transitioning more medically. So yeah, a lot’s been going on.”

The two friends jumped at the opportunity to base themselves in the Sherling Studio for a full week with technical support and be in a space in which they could freely explore their script, movement and motivations.

“It’s really amazing to see the space you are providing for LBGTQ+ people in Dorset,” says Aish. “I’ve not done any theatre prior to this, I’ve just been a poet so it’s a learning experience, but I’ve actually enjoyed it. It’s great, really fun.

“I think it’s the specific characters, or maybe one specific character, that I’ve seemed to have been able to easily get into.”

So, have they found in making this that they’re actually learning more about themselves and their situation?

“Oh, yeah, definitely,” says Eryn. “It’s interesting, because we’ve put in a little bit of monologue from my old show, which I did in 2023 when actually I was feeling very differently about myself. Now I’m looking at it and it’s not how I feel about myself anymore, but it feels important to have it in there because it does describe a certain level of gender dysphoria that I think is important to convey.

“We both came from very, very different experiences of gender before we came out. I came out as gender fluid when I was 16 and I’m from a small town, so people had no idea what I was talking about. People thought I was very strange and I kind of just rolled with it.

“Aish came out a fair bit later, like 20, and they were quite feminine before – dressed very feminine and got a lot more attention because of that.”

Girlhood On T is still subject to change and in many ways epitomises the value to artists of a residency programme such as Sanctuary.

“Our tagline is always ‘Girlhood, Transness and Masculinity’,” says Eryn. “And the idea was to explore our experiences of girlhood, our experiences of being trans/non-binary and then our experiences, not necessarily of being masculine, but of experiencing other people’s masculinity and how that’s made us feel about ourselves.

“It’s about friendship as well and I think we’ve struggled to put that in for some reason, even though we are friends. We’re not outwardly affectionate friends and in the last couple of years, we both realised that we’re autistic – like we’ve been staying together in this accommodation and we keep making really weird noises and, it’s difficult to explain, but that’s kind of our thing.”

And with plans to perform Girlhood On T this autumn, Eryn and Aish would love to bring it back to Lighthouse as a finished article. Watch this space.

(NC)