He was the Californian surfer boy who by day gave bogus tours of his London house – and by night held epic orgies. Now a real tour, about the ceramicist he fell in love with, is opening at the astonishing residence
‘How long have you been gay for?’ ‘About five minutes’ … Severs, sitting, and Pettet at Dennis Severs House in the 1980s.‘How long have you been gay for?’ ‘About five minutes’ … Severs, sitting, and Pettet at Dennis Severs House in the 1980s.. Its four-poster bed has been left unmade, half-empty glasses of wine sit on the table and breakfast has been only partly eaten. It’s as if its 18th-century residents have only just departed.
From the moment he acquired his house, Severs opened it for tours. It did not matter that it was of no special historical significance because he just made stories up as he went along. He shepherded groups around by candlelight for up to three and a half hours while he grew more extravagant in his flights of fancy, seeking to evoke what he called “atmospheres”.Roll up, roll up … Severs conducted tours saying his house was once owned by a Huguenot family of silk weavers.
Severs succumbed to Aids in 1999. No tours took place after that for more than 20 years. Then, when the house reopened after lockdown, I was commissioned to reimagine them and start again.It was a formidable act to follow. The challenge was how to remain true to the spirit of Severs’ original tours but speak to an audience today. We live in a very different world now, and promenade or “immersive” theatre has evolved too.
Emboldened by this success, we have now turned the idea on its head for Simon’s Story, which explores the lives of Severs and the small circle of men who lived with him and created the house as we know it. For them it was a place of refuge, consolation and personal freedom, at a time when HIV and Aids was inducing existential terror in a generation of gay men.
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