Shelter by Julia Finn
20 - 25 May 2025, 7.30 pm
Jess and Ross are trapped in a survival bunker - they can hear something enormous and hungry desperately trying to claw them out. They are safe in the bunker, from the homophobia and transphobia of the outside world, from Jess' brother who locked them inside. With each other as their only company, they use each other to affirm that they are loveable, that they are weak, that they are cruel. They use each other for pleasure and self-hatred.
Shelter was written by Julia Finn, a trans woman and lesbian, as an exploration of queerness and monstrosity. The script interrogates the desire to self-isolate, with the acknowledgment of harm that internalized hatred can bring to loved ones, relationships, and yourself.
All ticket sales are non-refundable.
In exceptional circumstances, we might be able to exchange your ticket for another performance.
Late entry cannot be guaranteed; Latecomers are admitted at the discretion of the visiting company and show with everyone's best experience in mind.
If you would like to request an exchange or a refund, please write to info@baronscourttheatre.com
Further Information:
Shelter is a show largely about interrogating the relationship of a lesbian couple, Jess and Ross that has been tainted by outside bigotry - as such it deals with difficult topics throughout its course. This is not particularly a play about characters gaining trauma - but about dealing with recurring traumas, and about emotional self-harm.
Abusive Relationship Dynamics:
Jess and Ross often mediate their relationship through sex in a way that is often not healthy, this is depicted throughout the play as a facet of the power imbalances core to their relationship. There are two moments that may be particularly upsetting to audience members in which Ross threatens to stab Jess in an erotic context and another in which Jess seeks Ross’ sexual control to escape an emotional breakdown. There is no physical violence depicted.
Bigotry:
Jess and Ross have internalized ideas about themselves and each other informed by transphobic, homophobic, and transmisogynistic narratives which manifest in their relationship. There are two moments that may be particularly upsetting to audience members in which Jess asks Ross to describe her in order to fuel her dysphoria and another in which a letter from Jess’ homophobic Christian extremist brother is read aloud. No slurs are said.
Mental Illness:
Jess and Ross are both mentally ill as a result of their current situation trapped in a bunker and their respective trauma. Jess is depicted as having a bout of religious psychosis when she imagines a radio playing a hymn and Ross is depicted as having indirect suicidal ideation and an apparent reliance on cigarettes to regulate her emotions.
Miscellaneous triggers:
The play also contains content that may be triggering to those sensitive to Claustrophobia (the characters are locked in a confined space), Cryophobia (the characters have to contend with the shelter becoming colder over time), Restricted Eating (the characters have a limited food source), Food Contamination (there is discussion of mould), Loss of HRT (Jess has to ration her limited oestrogen supply) and Needles (there is an on-stage injection).