> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # SPOTLIGHT ON Sean Denyer – Acting Out queer stories - URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/spotlight-on-sean-denyer-acting-out-queer-stories/ - Published: 2022-04-30T11:08:11.000Z - Updated: 2022-04-30T11:20:24.000Z - Description: Brian Butler talks to Irish Queer theatre pioneer Sean Denyer ahead of his Brighton Fringe return - Author: Brian Butler - Tags: Arts, Brighton Fringe, Previews, Theatre, Dublin, LGBTQ, queer, Sean Denyer, The Round Georges **Sean Denyer** has always been one of life’s jugglers – combining as he does a career as a senior public health official with being the co-founder of a pioneering Irish queer community-based theatre company **Acting Out**. He describes his childhood as “a tale of two halves”. He told me: “I was in every play at primary school, thanks to a very good teacher. Age 8 or 9 I wrote plays for my classmates but at secondary school there was no focus for me: it was very poor at the performance arts, so I was still interested but my involvement fizzled out”. ![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/img_1773.jpg) Sean Denyer At college he studied medicine, and later as a junior doctor he was keen to watch shows. Fast forward to Sligo in Ireland where he and his husband set up a drama group. With two weeks to go to a production someone dropped out and Sean was thrust into it. ”We formed a sort of gay drama group in Sligo but I was half the time in Dublin. The group was looking for a suitable play and they couldn’t find one, so I decided I’d have a go at writing one”. Having got the bug, he and husband Howard decided there needed to be an LGBTQ+ group so Acting Out was formed – some 15 year ago. And the group became two: a community theatre with workshops, and a performing company. By this time Sean had become Director of Public Health in Dublin. ![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image3.jpg) Best Served Cold “We were an ensemble group, wanting to do ambitious stuff- full-length plays”. Their first production was entered into a gay theatre festival in Dublin and won an award. “I thought: ‘I can do this’”. While Howard ran the workshop, Sean concentrated on writing and producing with the theatre company. “We’ve always done plays not seen here or new work. It’s been a significant part of my life, really. We started taking stuff elsewhere – particularly Brighton and Prague”. The group now tours Ireland: “We go to little places, giving people their first opportunity to see queer theatre”, and they’ve rightly acquired a reputation for pioneering work. Their forthcoming show – the[ third to come](https://www.brightonfringe.org/whats-on/best-served-cold-140746/?ref=scenemag.co.uk) to **Brighton Fringe** – is called **Best Served Cold**. Sean admits it’s difficult to define in terms of its genre: “Is it a thriller, a psycho drama or a dark queer comedy? I’m not sure what the audience will think or feel – some of it is very disturbing. When we showed it last year in Dublin as a workshop the straights found it disturbing and the gays found it hilarious.” ![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/bsc.png) Without revealing too much, it’s about masculinity in the queer world, with none of the characters being likeable. It’s also about revenge in the gay community- hence the title *Best Served Cold* – and about denial of a person’s sexuality and about a joke that escalates to a totally different level, and finally, Sean tells me, it’s about the authenticity of the self. Quite a heady menu. Asked the current thorny question of whether queer characters should always be played by queer actors, Sean is clear: “A good actor can inhabit any character, but there’s an extra dimension if it’s a queer actor because they’ve lived that life. That said, I’ve never asked any auditionee their sexuality. I tend to know.” Asked what advice he’d give to a young Sean, he said: “Don’t be afraid – I was afraid. It was hard really and people can’t imagine it now. Then I couldn’t imagine being gay and being happy. I had no role models. Be your authentic self, I’d tell the young Sean.” **You can catch *Best Served Cold* at Brighton Fringe from May 26-9 at the Round Georges in Kemptown. Tickets [HERE](https://www.brightonfringe.org/whats-on/best-served-cold-140746/?ref=scenemag.co.uk)** Look out for previews and reviews of a wide range of Brighton Fringe shows in *Scene.* ![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/acting-out-gscene-ad.jpg)