On Halloween night a group of friends find themselves in a church, where long-buried secrets throw their relationships into question.
Sharing is Caring follows a university-aged friend group on Halloween when something goes wrong and they end up at an old, abandoned church. Produced by Of the Sea Productions, the play Sharing is Caring ran from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2 at the Spire Performance Hall. Current Queen’s student as well as writer, producer, and director of the show Grace Delamere, ArtSci ’25, began Of the Sea in 2023 to platform themselves and their talented peers, who were looking to tell unheard stories through live theatre.
Sharing is Caring is Of the Sea’s fourth show and follows a queer friend group and their night in an old, abandoned church. Following a non-linear timeline, each character takes a turn confessing what they believe are their biggest sins. As the plot unravels, each character confesses something about themselves, and the audience is left wondering if the secrets will drive them closer together, or further apart.
Delamere expressed how they wanted to tell a story about the unique dynamic of queer friendships, especially in their early 20s. Putting the show together was challenging, but Delamere said they couldn’t have done it without their entire team. They expressed special gratitude for Elsa McKnight, ArtSci ’25, the co-producer, assistant director, lighting, and sound designer of Sharing is Caring. Other of the cast and crew included Queen’s students and one local high school student.
Set in a church, Sharing is Caring touches on the unique relationship queer people have with God. The characters frequently express their sexual orientation is not a sin, but instead, there’s something else they have wanted to get off their chest.
One of the main characters, Lani, played by Cassian Manderson, ConEd ’26, grew up in the church and felt its teachings had been weaponized against him. The story dissects this trauma, turning the church into a safe place where he could overcome his feelings and connect more with his friends and partner.
The story is intended to dive deep into the friendship dynamics of queer friend groups.
“One of the biggest things I wanted to do with this is have the friend group and the characters as entirely queer and genderqueer, and I’d never seen that represented on stage before. I grew up going to the theatre and I’d never been like ‘oh that’s my friend group on stage,’” Delamere said in an interview with The Journal.
The play wasn’t about representation alone, but rather the experience of connection and community young queer people find with one another.
“Every community has a certain way of connecting with their people,” Delamere said. The play included slang—which Delamere joked a professor assisting with the project didn’t understand in the script at first.
Sharing is Caring exposes the uniqueness of queer friendships and the transitional life stage between childhood and adulthood. The play was distinctly relatable to university students, with the characters cracking jokes about their “crumbling university town” and “never venturing further than 10 minutes from campus.”
Each character deals with different challenges, including depression, addiction, domestic abuse, transphobia, as well as general loneliness and feeling like a bad friend. These dynamics are further explored as the audience learns more about the characters and their motivations, understanding the group’s dynamics on a deeper level after every confessional.
Callie, one of the main characters, played by Bas O’Brien, comes across as the most emotionally intelligent, but the audience could see them listening in during the confessions. When this is revealed, you wonder what they have left to offer the group, and if they’ll be able to forgive them.
Delamere expressed how they wanted to portray the complexity of friendship.
“Despite having a super intense level of closeness with your friends, there are certain things that we just don’t tell people, and how that unravels once those things start coming out,” they said.
Working on plays and building Of the Sea, has been one of Delamere’s favourite experiences at Queen’s.
“I realized through that process that I wanted to keep doing this and I wanted to be able to keep giving platforms to people that don’t always feel like they can have a platform, or don’t always feel comfortable with the way that things are necessarily done,” they shared.
At the intersection of youth, queerness, and identity, Sharing is Caring, was a meaningful watch.
“I just want people to feel something,” Delamere said. “I want them to leave and just have thoughts about what they saw and to resonate with either a character or something that was said.”
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