SHARED?

Partisan Productions in collaboration with Clanmil Housing are delighted to present a series of performances of the play Shared? as part of Good Relations Week 2022, written and directed by Fintan Brady.

Shared? is a thought-provoking, moving and at times surprisingly funny exploration of contemporary housing issues and the human lives behind the social housing statistics and stereotypes.

Shared? follows a colourful cast of characters living in, and close-by to a shared housing development where a rumour has been circulating and the local Neighbourhood App has taken a definite turn for the odd. Meet these neighbours, from different countries, classes and cultures as their worlds begin to combine and collide.

One of them is Emma; a single mother, she has ‘earned’ enough points to move into a new flat in a shared housing development on the leafy side of town. She works long hours for low pay. From the outside, looking in, Emma can see that her new neighbourhood promises new faces, integrated schools and more sourdough bakes than you can shake a stick at but all she wants is to be able to spend more time with her 14 -year- old son, Josh, who seems to have developed some issues of his own.

Emma’s new flat is only 2km from the estate she grew up in but sometimes it feels a world away from the people and the ways that she knows- she’s in a land with the ‘others’ - and wonders if she can ever truly belong.

Segregation between the two main religious communities is a long-running issue in the political and social history of Northern Ireland and it is often seen as both a cause and effect of the ‘Troubles’ and of post-conflict tensions. However, when surveyed, 78% of people, said that if they had a choice, they would prefer to live in a mixed-religion neighbourhood.

Clanmil Housing want to build more shared neighbourhoods and have made a commitment to deliver at least five schemes by 2026.

Clanmil are currently managing shared housing developments in Belfast, Banbridge, Crossgar, Dundrum, Newcastle, and Newtownabbey.

FREE ADMISSION

TICKETS: https://sharedbypartisan.eventbrite.co.uk