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Casson & Friends
People Powered Performance
C+F Shed Stories (Credit Alisa Boanta) - 1 LS..jpeg

Shed Stories Digital Programme

Performers: Deepraj Singh & Matthew Winston (Image Credit: Alisa Boanta)

SHED STORIES
by Casson & Friends

theatre, documentary & movement combine to celebrate men’s sheds and the communities around them.

SHED STORIES is a performance from Casson & Friends, inspired by interviews with Shedders of all ages. The show combines compelling movement with human, humorous and heartwarming tales of making sawdust, friends, and cups of tea!

Using Casson & Friends’ unique approach of turning ‘conversation into choreography’, the performance has been created through a series of interviews, visits, workshops & residencies with shedders, shed organisers and other experts, at Sheds, Arts and Community Spaces in Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Essex, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire and North Yorkshire between Summer 2024 and Spring 2025.

Performed by 2 male performers, SHED STORIES lasts for approximately 60 minutes, with the audience sat on all sides of our ‘shed’, placed very close to the action. Please ensure you read our content warnings (below) if you have any particular sensitivities.

The show follows on from The Allotment Project and PREPPERS, and is the next in a series of co-created performances that shine a light on the importance of community in the face of an increasingly isolated society.

Share your thoughts on the performance using #ShedStoriesShow and tagging @cassonandfriends on Instagram

what are ‘men’s sheds’?

Men’s Sheds are community spaces where men can pursue practical skills including making and mending, but crucially offering a social space for men with similar interests to be together - rather than alone. These spaces not only offer somewhere to develop and share skills, but build vital social connections and friendships that can improve mental health and reduce the risk of loneliness & isolation. Though traditionally male spaces, many sheds also have female members.

Find your closest ‘Men’s Shed’ using the UK Men’s Sheds Association website at https://menssheds.org.uk/find-a-shed/

content warnings (contains spoilers)

Content includes references to long term health conditions, mental health challenges, attempted suicide, and death/grief.
There is some gentle audience interaction where the audience are asked to take and choose a biscuit.

credits

  • Directed & Choreographed by Tim Casson in collaboration with the performers

  • Created & Devised with Matthew Winston & Deepraj Singh

  • Original Music by Paul Rogerson

  • Set Element Design by Alan Casson

  • Production Fabrication by Harlow Hill Men’s Shed and Long Sutton Youth Shed

  • Production Support, Sound Design & Captioning by Samuel Parker

  • Company Producer Nick Sweeting

  • Logistical Support Alice Shepperson Brinklow

  • Commissioned by Lincoln Arts Centre & Applause Rural Touring

  • Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England

  • Created with additional support from: UK Men’s Sheds Association, Metal Southend, Peterborough Presents, Metal Peterborough, The Key Theatre, Made With Many, Harrogate Theatre, Rural Arts, Black Country Touring, Old Diorama Arts Centre, Sadler’s Wells, Theatreship and Transported

  • Touring Nationally with additional support from: Applause Rural Touring, Transported & Live & Local

  • Sheds we have visited include: 

    • The Shed @ Collingham

    • The Beacon Shed (Benfleet)

    • Thundersley Men’s Shed (Benfleet)

    • KHL Community Workshop (Corby)

    • Sunnyside Men’s Shed (London)

    • Long Sutton Men’s Shed

    • Long Sutton Youth Shed

    • Men’s Shed at Green Back Yard (Peterborough)

    • Yaxley & Farcett Men’s Shed

    • Ripon Men’s Shed

    • Harlow Hill Men’s Shed (Harrogate)

    • Garon Park Men’s Shed (Southend)

    • Diamond Creek Men’s Shed (Australia)

fun facts

  • This performance was inspired by interviews we undertook at over 13 Men’s Sheds with over 80 shed attendees and organisers in Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Essex, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, North Yorkshire and even Australia - there were over 24 hours of interviews!

  • Nothing in the show is made up. All of the words you hear are from the people we interviewed, and all the moves you see were inspired by the themes that came up across these conversations.

  • You might wonder why the performers are using iPods and headphones… In some sections we use a technique called ‘Headphone Verbatim’ - this means that although the performers know the words, during the performance they listen to the recording of the original interview, and attempt to speak in-time with this recording. This helps them to keep the intonation and speech pattern from the person we interviewed (including all the um’s, er’s, and stumbles), making it feel like you’re watching a ‘real person’ - not just a performer saying lines.

  • The area the performers are in (what we call our ‘shed’) is only 3 x 4.5 meters - and the whole technical setup (including lights & sound) is wireless and rechargeable, meaning we can perform the show anywhere - even in a Men’s Shed.

  • If you have any more questions or comments about the show you can get in touch with us here

help us out, please compete our survey!

Audience Survey


if you enjoyed the performance, why not donate?

Donate to CASSON & FRIENDS

tour dates 2025


autumn tour 2025

Spring tour 2025

biographies

left to right; Deepraj Singh & Matthew Winston in rehearsals for SHED STORIES at Sadler’s Well in March 2025

matthew winston - performer

Matthew is a professional dance artist, movement practitioner and Franklin Method educator. He has a passion for studying movement and the body, and this passion has driven him to continually deepen his practice over the course of 20 years working in the dance sector. His training began at Laban, where he completed his degree with first class honours. He then spent a year at London Contemporary Dance School as a member of EDge, the postgraduate performance company. After graduating, Matthew went on to work with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Bare Bones dance company, and choreographer Ben Wright. He has also worked with Liam Steele and Robert Tannion in their company Stan Won’t Dance, performed in operas at home and abroad, taught classes and workshops in China, and completed his MA at London Contemporary Dance School. He began working with Protein Dance in 2012, notably performing in (In)visible Dancing, May Contain Food and En Route. His desire to further his knowledge of the body and improve his movement led him to the Franklin Method, and in 2024 he completed his training to become a certified level 2 Franklin Method educator. Matt has worked extensively with Casson & Friends since 2016.

deepraj singh - performer

Deepraj Singh is a movement artist based in Bristol. After training at London Contemporary Dance School, where he was awarded a scholarship, he has continued working on professional pieces both nationally and internationally and draws upon various dance techniques when creating pieces, which are rhythmically explorative and emotionally driven. He has recently been delving in to more community based practices, pulling inspiration from his heritage and the Panjabi community/Bhangra. Using improvisation to build a community is prominent within his work, representing authenticity, collective human experience and endeavouring to make pieces as accessible as possible. 

tim casson - director (and about casson & friends)

Established by Tim Casson in 2012, Casson & Friends are a record breaking Dance Theatre company creating #PeoplePoweredPerformance - joyful, interactive, and accessible dance projects that bring the joy of dance into the everyday.

The company have extensive experience of creating flexible, scalable and highly portable work for a range of contexts including theatre, outdoor, rural, public, unconventional, and digital spaces. Much of our work is co-created, straddling professional and community contexts, and we have a long history of creating work that is accessible to all ages, particularly ‘accidental’ audiences, family audiences, disabled audiences, and those new to dance.

Casson & Friends are most known for groundbreaking interactive project, The Dance WE Made, which continues to run into it’s 12th season and has toured nationally and internationally to over 10 countries. In the UK we have been presented at Sadler’s Wells, Greenwich & Docklands International Festival, Glastonbury Festival, Brighton Digital Festival, bOing International Family Festival, and internationally at The Lyon Biennale, Downtown Dance Festival (New York), Festival Quartiers Danses (Montreal), Harare International Festival of Arts (Zimbabwe), and West Kowloon Cultural District (Hong Kong). Our international work has regularly been supported by British Council, often enabling us to engage local artists to perform and participate in our projects.

Casson & Friends are currently Associate Company of Lincoln Arts Centre (2023-26), and have previously been associates at DanceEast (2018-2022), Pavilion Dance South West (2013-2015) and Dance Digital (2014-15). Founder, Tim Casson was also a QuestLab Artist at Studio Wayne McGregor (2019), a Metal Change Maker Artist (2017-18), and participated on the Clore Leadership Short Course in 2016. In 2025 Casson & Friends were nominated for a Hong Kong Dance Award for Outstanding Alternative Space Production for ARCADE.

images by alisa boanta

Read the script

SHED STORIES SCRIPT

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