Blog: Tiagan Christie

What if you could swap bodies for a whole day? A full 24 hours in a different body, or even just a few hours. Well, at TramShed Theatre Company we were experimenting with this idea in our latest show, Right Where We Are. In the show there were two groups of characters – real world characters and fairytale land characters. One real world character would swap bodies with one character from fairytale land. We only explored swapping bodies and their characters missing their homes, but what if you swapped more than bodies? What if you swapped experiences too?

Experiences are what make us us, so would swapping them change who we are? If we could choose who we could swap with, I personally would swap with a version of myself. A version of myself that has their dream job, who is comfortable in their own skin, who has their whole life figured out. That version of me’s experiences will be different. People I know and love could be changed.

For a few weeks it would be fun, living my life the way I want, in a job that I enjoy, in a body that I’m comfortable in but after the honeymoon phase wears off I think I would miss things about my imperfect life. I would miss the people I know because of who I am – some may stay the same, but the friends I have then would be different and I might not have joined TramShed, which prides itself on inclusivity.

Then there’s the journey to that point of happiness. It would be amazing to go into a version of myself that has their life figured out, but the ups and downs of getting to that point would be greatly missed – knowing how I got the job, knowing the feelings of others around me when I became comfortable in my own skin. It’s one thing to know what’s happened, but actually being there as it happens is another feeling entirely!

Then the homesickness would sink in. I don’t know if how I grew up would be different, if my family was different, or if I would be missing them – my mother, my brothers, my sisters, my nana, my grandad, my niece, my cats and the family dogs. I wouldn’t be me? Well, I would, but not the me I know today.

Swapping back would be a drastic change. Knowing now what it would be like to have the life I wanted, that would eat at me for months. Maybe the rest of my life! And yet I would be grateful. Knowing how I could’ve got the life I wanted may have meant that the people I know, the places I love, could all be different. I would be grateful for what I have and who I know, who I can rely on and talk to.

Would I be changed from the swap? Certainly. It would put what I’ve done so far into perspective. It would probably spur me on to try and go and get my life sorted. I would live every moment with my family to the fullest, hang out with my friends any time I could, do what I need to do for me. Could I do that anyway?

Would you swap bodies with someone? If so, who? Would you like a taste of a different life? Or could you change the one you have for the better?

TramShed is an inclusive theatre company and charity that aims to change people’s lives (tramshed.org.uk)