BBC2 to broadcast ground breaking theatre production in August
The third instalment of Flood, created and produced by acclaimed theatre company Slung Low, which is being told across an entire year, online, live in Hull and on BBC TV.
Directed by Slung Low’s pioneering artistic director Alan Lane and written by award-winning playwright James Phillips, Flood is the Leeds-based company’s most ambitious and experimental project to date. This epic story, told in four compelling parts, began at the start of the year with a girl being raised from the depths of the sea, ahead of an approaching apocalyptic event that will see England engulfed by water.
Presented on a floating stage in Hull’s Victoria Dock, Flood mixes live performance, special effects, film and digital elements to tell a story across an entire year. Each part of this unprecedented piece of storytelling can be experienced as a stand-alone piece, whilst linking to the other parts.
Having begun as an online presentation in February, the first live performances of Flood took place in Hull’s Victoria Dock in in April.
The TV production Flood, Part Three: To the Sea in August takes the action forward and asks a simple question: what if the fleeing masses from our TV screens and Twitter feeds, in their boats and their orange lifejackets, had English accents? Because displacement is like disease: deep down we think it only happens to other people.
The television production features a cast of 10 professional actors and 11 community cast members and stars Nadia Emam as Gloriana, Marc Graham as Sam, Oliver Senton as the captain, Yusra Warsama as Zeina. Joining them are Emma Bright, Sally Ann Staunton, Joanna Nicks, Naveed Khan, Sarah-Louise Davies and Tony Hind.
Alan Lane, artistic director of Slung Low, said: “We’ve been overwhelmed by how the first half of Flood has been received by audiences live and digitally this year. The chance to take a part of the epic to the rest of the country through Performance Live is something we’re incredibly excited about. For an adventure to be made here in Hull’s Victoria Dock and seen throughout the nation is one of the many opportunities that Hull’s City of Culture has delivered.”
FLOOD HULL 2017
Part One: From the Sea – a short film in which the story begins, when a girl is raised from the depths of the sea. Funded by The Space, a commissioning and development organisation that supports artists and organisations to make the most of the opportunities that digital technology and online distribution afford, it was first shown in February and can be seen at www.hull2017.co.uk/flood.
Part Two: Abundance – a live play, in which an apocalypse approaches. Flood: Abundance was performed in Hull at Victoria Dock from 11 to 15 April. The cast included Sarah Louise Davies as Kathryn, Nadia Emam as Gloriana, Marc Graham as Sam, Lisa Howard as Natasha, Naveed Khan as Jack, Rani Moorthy as Johanna and Oliver Senton as Captain.
Part Three: To the Sea – a play broadcast on BBC television, in which the English become refugees. Flood: To the Sea is part of a series of programmes for BBC Arts called Performance Live, a two-year project produced in partnership with Arts Council England and Battersea Arts Centre that will challenge a spectrum of exciting artists, producers and arts organisations to produce their own television programmes.
Part Four: New World – a live play, in which the world is begun again. To be performed at Victoria Dock in October 2017, with further information to be released.
