Sharing Manchester's love stories

Sarah's stories are of "any sort of love, because love comes in many forms"

Eddi Reader once sang that 'nobody lives without love' and it's a notion that's being tested out by a Manchester playwright.

Sarah Evans' Kiss My Heart is a solo show that shares love stories in the most intimate of settings - a small pink tent.

The audience of one is treated to one of the tales that Sarah has collected about real experiences of love.

She says she "wanted to create something really special" and was inspired to put together the show after getting powerful reactions to one of her other works.

"I wrote a play called 'The Speed of Dating' and there's a scene about love.

"Everyone was saying to me that it was amazing - one lady even asked me if she could use it in her wedding, which is crazy but fantastic.

"So that got me thinking about love, how we all experience it differently and how it would be interesting to find out what everyone else thinks about love."

'Any sort of love'

To that end, she has spent months stopping strangers in the street and on the bus - "the 85 and 86 route has been essential for collecting love stories" - and handing them a postcard on which to write their story.

Those stories have been collected into bundles of 100, from which Sarah creates her shows - and by love, she really does mean the widest definition of the emotion.

It's a special moment, where someone has shared their story of love through me with that person, which I think is really beautiful Sarah Evans

"It's any sort of love, because love comes in many forms.

"So it can be love for a child, a parent, a pet, a hobby or a partner. Any sort of love whatsoever."

Sarah has been overwhelmed both by the volume of responses she's had and the stories that they've contained.

"The fact that they're from strangers touches me. Because it's anonymous, they can be as free and as giving as they like.

"I collected some at Chorlton Green Festival and it sounds really sad, but I actually cried.

"Some of them were amazing, really heartfelt."

'Free therapy'

According to Sarah, it is the honest sharing that is the key to the stories' success and she admits that some people have found that once they've started telling their tales, they can't stop.

"There was one guy who said he was going through a terrible break-up and I could have his story.

"Then I saw him in the street and he said 'I've sent you a postcard and it was great, I really want to email you, do you mind?'

"I said, 'no, send me as much as you want', so he's emailing in every now and again, every time he needs to get something off his chest.

"It's like free therapy and for me it's brilliant, because I can create so much from that."

'A one-off for one'

And create she does. Each story is used just once, meaning that every person who comes along to Kiss My Heart gets a unique show.

"It's a one-off performance for one person. You know that the experience that I have with you is never going to happen with anyone else.

"So it's a special moment, where someone has shared their story of love through me with that person, which I think is really beautiful."

Beautiful, yes, but also possibly a little intense, particularly in the close quarters of the tent, but Sarah's come up with a solution for anyone worried about getting overwhelmed by it all.

"On your way in, you choose between a red heart, a yellow heart and a green heart - that's how you want to be interacted with.

"The red heart is no interaction. You can sit and listen to a story and it's a performance from far away.

"Yellow is somewhere in-between and green means it's a bit of a free-for-all."

"Basically, I can hold people's hands, give them a hug and share the story that way."

With performances like that, who knows? Kiss My Heart might even inspire a few love stories of its own.

Kiss My Heart takes place at Greenroom on Sat 3 Oct from noon to 7pm as part of the free Emergency 09 festival.

For more details, see the Greenroom website and email your own love stories to Sarah at Kiss My Heart