Clothes Swap is Sale Waterside’s first in-house production. Set in a youth club, it centres on the complex interpersonal relationships between three young queer people as they navigate the threat of the club’s closure.
The play is directed by storyteller and activist Nathaniel J Hall and written by therapist and writer Liam Mansfield. Inspired by his time as an LGBTQ+ youth worker, it marks Mansfield’s first ever theatre production.
Mansfield uses clothes as a symbol throughout the play; I saw the clothes swap at the youth club as an opportunity for the young people, all with very distinct personalities, to learn from each other, and to try on each other’s thoughts for size. This is most notable with the boisterous character Ash, played by David Carpenter, who learns to embrace a softer side of himself through his friendship with Abel Hanson’s character Tatum.
This quote from Virginia Woolf’s The Waves fits nicely here: “Hence I keep my phrases hung like clothes in a cupboard, waiting for someone to wear them.”
The play engages with topics that have been subject to heated debate, such as transgender people using bathrooms aligned with their gender. The character Val, played by Lindsay Eavis, is a traditionalist who struggles with the idea of queer young people sharing the same bathroom as women from her own group.
Importantly, Eavis portrays Val not as a villain, but as someone who is misled, using anxious body language, such as keeping her distance from the other characters, to reveal her uncertainty. The owner of the youth club, Chris, played by Nicole Keri, believably sympathises with her despite her own frustrations at the threat of the youth club being closed down.
The setting inside the youth club gives the production an intimate atmosphere, making the threat of closure feel like the personal loss of a home.
However, the bright neon lights above the stage seemed more suited to a nightclub. I saw this as a nod to adulthood, suggesting that shared spaces, whether youth clubs or queer venues, remain essential in creating a sense of belonging throughout life.
Mansfield said: “I want people to think about how they engage with young people and queer spaces and how we all engage with shared spaces, making sure we’re looking after each other and not villainising anybody that’s caught up in the conflict around shared spaces, shared bathrooms and gender.
“Clothes Swap is important now because of everything that’s happening in the news, with trans people not being able to access spaces that they need daily and being villainised.
“The play also addresses homophobia and the marginalisation of our community, which is scarily becoming more and more of an issue.”
Tatum is a character at the centre of the bathroom conversation, having a breakthrough moment where they say to Val: “I think we are both saying the same thing”, as both parties ultimately want the same thing: a safe space.
They are a character who breeds connection. Despite seeming unsure of themselves when they first join the club, both Ash and Naomi Ricci’s character Den are brought together through Tatum’s kind mediation, despite the characters having seemingly opposite personalities.
Hanson’s restrained performance makes Tatum’s initial uncertainty feel believable, and it is heartwarming to watch them grow in confidence.
Hanson said: “I crafted Tatum to be queer and neurodivergent, reflecting my own experience.
“I grew up in a place that was very conservative and religious back in America, so the play is a way for me to live out that energy a bit more that I experienced after moving to the city, and I feel very proud doing that.”
Hanson also shared Mansfield’s sentiment that the enemy is not always who you think it is, and that we are all fighting something bigger together.
Hanson added: “That doesn’t necessarily mean we all need to be in the same spaces, because sometimes you need to protect yourself.
“That doesn’t mean that you isolate yourself from the rest of the world, because that gets you nowhere, and it deprives society of connection, which is something we all thrive on.”
Clothes Swap’s greatest strength is its refusal to create easy villains. Instead, it presents conflict as something that can only be challenged through empathy, conversation, and the willingness to see others more clearly.
Instagram: @watersidearts_
Featured image: The cast of Clothes Swap at Sale Waterside / Georgina Garness Copyright 2026
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