The Shunt. My experience, behind the scenes.

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I’ve been to Shunt in October for the first time. You enter through this tiny door, inside London Bridge Station. They ask for your ID. Security reason, they say. Then suddenly and unexpectedly you’re inside this cavernous space. Humidity and smell of cellar, walls made of bricks and darkness, but slowly your eyes start to see a lot of candles all around. At first, you feel lost, and also a little scared. You don’t know where to go and why. But then you realize there are paintings on your right side, and on the left a small room with live music. And you feel like you’re wandering in a place where there’s no time and no rules. We’re in the underground. Everything is possible in the underground. As in the movie by Emir Kusturica. The place is huge; performances are going on in the course of all the night. Musicians, workshop, and installation: all around you. It’s a truly strong experience. The night then finished with a DJ, dancing until someone fights you off.



This is Shunt. Which better place to spend your Friday and Saturday evenings? I felt in love with the idea of a multi-artistic venue, in a location so beautiful and big. The day after, I looked for more information on the web, and I discovered that an experimental theatre group composed by ten actors is running the place. They moved to the ‘vault’ in 2004, and before this, they were located in a small railway arch in Bethnal Green.
When I noticed on their website that they were looking for volunteers, I didn’t wait a minute. I send them my CV and the week after I was there, the light of the day outside, and inside: no time, no hours… only that magical atmosphere which struck me from the first time. Cleaning chairs, painting walls, preparing set design for the performances: these were (and still are) my tasks during the day. In the night I’m the usherette, giving information to lost people, as I was.

I also worked as an usherette (dressed as a policemen) in the theatre production that is running from October called Money. It’s an experimental piece of theatre: this means there is not a clear narrative structure as in traditional theatre and also they want to make the viewer feel involved in the act. The entire act is located in a warehouse with a huge machine inside that was constructed exclusively for the show. It’s really an impressive construction, with four floors all of them with glass, and the show takes place inside different rooms on different floors, so that the audience has to move around it, never knowing what is going to happen next.



I’m really happy about the opportunity Shunt gives to every kind of person that wants to get involved in something creative and satisfactory. Surely it’s a big help for them to have such a lot of people working for free, but on the other hand they’re always really concerned about the wellbeing of all volunteers, they always smile and thank everybody and they have a lot of rewards such as free guest list for friends of volunteers, free drinks and also the possibility to propose artistic projects for the nights.

Maybe one day I’ll be on the scene. But for now, I’m happy to be behind them. The shows are definitely more exiting from this point of view.