In Boat on the water three young Devon artists were funded by Dance in Devon to bring three art forms (acting, dance and performance poetry) to The Panacea, a 34ft yacht moored at the Mayflower Marina in Stonehouse. Over two days the piece was shown to a total of 75 audience members, spanning an age range of 7-85yrs and including local residents, boat owners, theatre goers and Herald readers!

The piece was entirely developed on location. The story, movement material and poetry all emerged from the performers’ experience of living on the boat, from exploring the site, and from research done around themes of sailing, including popular superstitions.

“It’s bad luck to have flowers on board a boat! I’m going to have to come down and punch you on the nose, it’s the only way to reverse the curse!” Performer, Hannah Silva.

So what was it about? ‘A teapot, three sisters, their mother, superstitions and the Panacea,’ Hannah Silva explains, ‘George, the youngest, has spent five years at sea carrying her mother in a teapot. It is not until she thinks she hears the boat (or is it her mother?) telling her to go back to her sisters that she returns and finally scatters the ashes.’

Add to that vibrant costumes, a ‘very bendy’ dancer (according to an audience member, age 7), poetry up a mast, a hilariously scatty actress, strange rituals involving teabags and wishes, just the right amount of audience participation, and you get Boat on the water.

Hannah talks about her experience of writing on the boat: ‘The surroundings infiltrated my text. The wind sounded like ghosts, the ghosts of boats, of sailors, of the past, and that’s where the idea of the mother’s ghost came from.  One of the delights was to work with my voice in the landscape, to create poetry using the words that surrounded us: the names of the other boats, the instructions at the marina, the kids playing on the pontoon. The sound of the gulls calling dialogued with my text: “Gulls gulls girls girls gulls scream from the pain of carrying fishermen’s souls.”’

Creating the story from our own experiences, games, the boat and our imaginations was a lot of fun, and it was very rewarding to hear one audience member comment that she wanted to “read more about the characters in a book!”’

Chloe Langford describes her experience of dancing on the Panacea:

‘We found ways of communicating across the three disciplines of theatre, dance and poetry so each art form had space within the piece. It was really exciting to find ways of moving around the boat; the environment acted as a stimulus for me to find new movement patterns and ideas. The swaying motion of the boat offered a rhythm for me to move with or against. All the wires and obstacles on deck provided a framework and boundaries to set my movements within.’

Actor, Alice Tatton-Brown comments: ‘The joy of a site specific performance is that it demands the performers are continually responsive to their environment. To the rain, the wind, the audience, and of course the local sailors asking what on earth we are doing dressed so elaborately in a marina.’

Boat on the water’s audience sums up:

“It was like being in a dream – I’m gutted I have to go home and do my washing now!”

“Boat on the Water was like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

“Vibrant with colour and life; amazingly inventive and entirely absorbing.”
“The performers looked me in the eyes as if they’d known me for years”

“A truly brave step into alternative theatre and an experience not soon forgotten. I so enjoyed and delighted in the whole experience!”

 Sign up to the mailing list: info@boatonthewater.co.uk to stay informed. For info on future projects visit: www.hannahsilva.co.uk or email silva_danca@yahoodotcom