Creation Theatre’s – BOATMAN TOWN

Creation Theatre presents the world premiere of Glyn Maxwell’s Boatman Town. It is set in an English pub, so the production is touring to the pubs of Oxfordshire and beyond. Pick from a variety of different locations, times and venues, and join the talented team for a unique hour of theatre.

Expect a modern tragicomic take on Everyman, the great medieval morality play.

The last day of our sun-soaked hols on a strange island in the Med – and it just had to pour with rain! Yvonn and her friends take shelter in The English Pub, where else? But the service is terrible, the whole place seems dead and Yvonn can hear a child crying… Something bad has happened here, or is it about to happen? And is anyone going to be strong enough, kind enough, good enough, to stop it? One by one Yvonn and her friends will be tested in this modern, drunken, tragicomic take on Everyman, the great medieval morality play.

Dr Helen Eastman, CEO & Artistic Director of Creation Theatre and Director of Boatman Town, explains:

‘This is a unique and creative reworking of the Everyman story from one of the UK’s leading poets and verse playwrights. But more than that, as soon as I read it I knew Creation was the perfect company to premiere it – because it is inherently site-specific. It is written to take place in the pub. Creation have made work in spaces and places from shopping centres to stately homes and swing parks to industrial estates, but now it’s time for a pint!  I can’t wait to work with our rep company, and some incredible guest artists, on this beautiful script.’

Glyn Maxwell, writer of Boatman Town, a new version of Everyman comments,

‘I’ve been trying to write a modern take on Everyman for many years. It’s hard to tell that story in a world that has largely lost its sense of God or Hell or Heaven. If there’s no punishment or reward, why be good at all?  But what if you knew that an act of human-kindness was going to cost you your life? Yvonn, the hero of Boatman Town, sees a choice as stark as that, as she shelters from the rain with her friends in The English Pub on a lost Mediterranean island. She hears a child crying and sees nobody helping. Meanwhile the Barman, Death, starts playing tricks with their minds…’