OffWestEnd's Denholm Spurr: 'I slept in saunas while homeless. Now I champion independent theatre'

Denholm Spurr is the executive producer of OffWestEnd, the organisation behind the Offies – the awards that have championed independent theatre in London for 20 years, spotlighting work before it reaches mainstream acclaim.

Past winners include Baby Reindeer, Fleabag and Operation Mincemeat. This year’s ceremony takes place on 30 March at Central Hall, Westminster. What makes Denholm’s story remarkable is that the sector he now works at the heart of was, in his own words, ‘the thread that kept me attached to life’ during three years of homelessness in his early 20s. This is his story…

People always think recovery is a straight line. It isn’t. It’s a constant battle, really.

I left drama school in the depths of austerity Britain in 2012, having experienced a serious mental health breakdown during my training. The pastoral care simply wasn’t there. I went to see the principal about what I was going through. He played solitaire while I spoke to him. I was on a full scholarship and still had to work weekends and rely on my grandparents to survive. I left with world-class artistic training, but financially precarious and psychologically battered.

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Shortly after, I came out as gay to my family and the rejection that followed contributed to a period of instability that led to three years of homelessness in my early twenties. I found myself sleeping on friends’ sofas, in my agent’s office, and using gay saunas that were open 24 hours as a practical place to stay. I had to call the council repeatedly to try to access a homeless hostel. The difficulty was that sleeping in a sauna didn’t count as rough sleeping as far as they were concerned. I would have been housed much quicker had that not been the case.

The saunas were a practical solution, but not a comfortable one. Sweatbox near Oxford Circus was the main one – free on Mondays and Thursdays. There were wipe-clean hard sofas where people would fall asleep and nobody would disturb you, but music and TV would be playing continuously through the night. You could find a cubicle and lock yourself in, though you might be woken at three in the morning because they needed to clean. As I put it: you’ve got Liberty here and then there’s the sauna here. Two worlds, yards apart. As a young gay man in my early 20s, I also realised early on that I had a certain kind of value within gay male culture that I had never felt in heterosexual spaces.

That validation was intoxicating, but it was also dangerous. It gave me options, but not safety. On nights when friends’ sofas weren’t available, I would open Grindr and find someone who was willing to let me stay over. Fundamentally, I was using sex work to survive.

During that time, theatre never left me. I was performing Mercutio at the Old Red Lion while secretly sleeping in my agent’s office, averaging 49p an hour on a profit-share contract. I produced and directed a show at the Drayton Arms while keeping my situation hidden from most of the cast. Independent theatre was, in my own words, the thread that kept me attached to life.

In 2015 I was finally given a room in a homeless hostel. I remember sitting on my own bed for the first time in three years – tears of relief. My first Equity minimum acting job came through homeless theatre company Cardboard Citizens. It was the start of a year of huge change.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget that period of my life, and nor do I really want to. Most people who’ve been through homelessness either get stuck in the cycle – because the system is not designed to help you out of it – or they get out and never speak of it again. I’m someone who cares about telling stories. I’d be a hypocrite if I ignored that I had one of those stories myself. The question I keep asking is: how can I use this story to change that narrative for other people?

My connection with OffWestEnd began long before I took on my current role. During my homeless years, the organisation gave me opportunities that few others trusted me with. The juxtaposition of one day wondering where I might sleep and the next being part of the Offies felt, and still feels, quintessentially OffWestEnd – a sector that has always made space for people from all walks of life.

OffWestEnd was founded in 2006 to give London’s independent theatre community a unified identity to rival Off-Broadway. I’m now its executive producer, overseeing the Offies, the awards that have championed independent theatre for twenty years, spotlighting work before it reaches mainstream acclaim. Past winners include Baby Reindeer, Fleabag and Operation Mincemeat.

This year’s ceremony takes place on 30 March at Central Hall, Westminster, hosted by Divina De Campo, celebrating nominees across more than 500 productions at over 100 venues.

Independent theatre remains one of the most inventive and resilient parts of our cultural ecosystem, but the conditions in which it is made have changed.

Theatre makers from working-class backgrounds now represent just 7% of the industry workforce. I know what it is to work in this sector without a safety net. Having a real theatre maker in this job feels important – to ensure that the recognition and pathways to success we offer genuinely connect with what is needed on the ground, by and for the community. Hopefully, in doing so, I can also help my own recovery, which is still ongoing.

The 2026 Offies will take place on 30 March at Central Hall, Westminster hosted by drag sensation Divina De Campo. The event will also be live streamed. Tickets and information

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