PREVIEW By STEVE COOKE
TV and Stage star Sue Devaney is premiering her one-woman performance of ‘Didn’t You Used To Be Somebody?’ at HOME Manchester, commissioned for Recoverist Month by Portraits of Recovery and developed in partnership with HOME.
Throughout her illustrious career [Debbie Webster in Coronation Street, Jane in Dinnerladies, Liz Harker in Casualty, Rita in Jonny Briggs and touring in Mamma Mia! - to name but a few] Sue has taken a keen interest in and worked hard to promote improvements in Mental Health Care.
She is an active supporter and patron of VIBE [visit: vibecreativity.com] and highlights mental health issues in her shows and interviews.
I caught up with Sue during a short break from filming Corrie to find her bubbling with enthusiasm for this project. She told me how much she is enjoying being back in the rehearsal room, writing and creating this piece with her chum Jason Yates. "He's keeping me in check! Also I have a great mate who's a script editor on Corrie! I will run the finished product by her before we perform it in front of a live audience."
Sue has created a new character, Jessie Jackson, a woman of a certain age with an insatiable appetite for all things bright and beautiful and off the scale bad.
We can look forward to a ‘funny and poignant one-woman performance about suffering, survival and sweet tooth surrender, it is a story about someone who is a slave to the crave’.
‘If you’ve ever felt disconnected from everything and everyone, or hung out at a ‘poor me, poor me, pour me another’ pity party, then plug into this tale of twisted compulsions and extremes and experience what happens when the addict self is left to run the shit show.’
All tickets are Pay What You Can - Visit: https://homemcr.org/book-online/770601/
Recoverist Month celebrates the aspirational hopes, desires, fears, and dreams of Greater Manchester, people, and communities in recovery from addiction. Lived experience is centre stage, promoting positive health messaging and framing recovery as a viable lifestyle choice.
Recoverist Month September 2023. An initiative led by Portraits of Recovery www.portraitsofrecovery.org.uk
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