''I became the writer I am today because of a chance encounter with Raising the Wreck. I was 16 years old. I was alone. That night the whole world opened in front of me. I saw my future on that stage, I saw my ancestors, and understood my place in the lineage. It’s a pioneering piece of unapologetically women’s theatre, loud, vibrant, hilarious and somehow holy. It made the world seem possible xxx'' Joelle Taylor- poet, writer, performer and winner of The TS Eliot Award.
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''Sue Frumin is one of the funniest women I've EVER met. She makes me spit other people's food out of my own nose'', Erika Lopez, actor writer and performer
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“I remember Raising the Wreck as a ground-breaking drama bringing lesbian lives to the fore. It’s fitting that it should be reintroduced to a new audience forty years after it was first produced.” Bernardine Evaristo- writer, author, original cast member, and the first black woman to win The Booker Prize
Sea Change Theatre are planning a 2026 tour of the popular, Raising the Wreck, which will be updated for today's audience. Scroll to the bottom for our creative team!
Here's how it all began..
In 1985, Gay Sweatshop commissioned Sue Frumin to write Raising the Wreck. The performers were all female, and for the first time in the companies history the play had a multi-racial cast, which was very unusual for 1985! The original cast included Booker Prize winner, Bernardine Evaristo, who describes the play as ground-breaking.
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The play is set in a sunken galleon where four fierce female pirates, long since dead, recount their stories to a woman who has fallen into a timeslip from 1980s London, while running a pirate radio station.
In 2017, extracts of this popular play were performed at The Arcola Theatre with The Arcola Queer Collective, and in 2023 the full play was resurrected by Paul Green for Bijou Stories (https://bijouhistory.com/2023/08/03/raising-the-wreck/). A rehearsed reading was produced by Susan Croft for Unfinished Histories (www.unfinishedhistories.com) at Newington Green Meeting House.
Raising the Wreck is moving, funny, insightful, and is based on the true stories of legendary women pirates including: Grace O'Malley, Mary Read and Ching Pan Twu. Cast and Crew for the reading, included: Runa Augdal (director), Charly Faye, Blair Heinz, Catherine Mieses, Cicely Halkes-Wellstead, Elise Xiaqi and Emma Louise-Price. Audience members said: ‘'The actresses were so good… Not only did they create such compelling characters but they had a great chemistry and a fast banter. The play was sparking with jokes and the ensemble got the timing exactly right for the audience to laugh.'’
The original 1985 Gay Sweatshop cast and crew:
Writer: Sue Frumin
Director: Paddi Taylor
Cast: Bernadine Evaristo, Hazel Maycock, Sara Ridd, Denise Thompson, Marjolein de Vries
Designer: Kate Owen
The Creative Team
With support from:
