Tales from a Sea Journey

Tales From a Sea Journey was created after the multinational, multilingual theatre company spent twelve days on a 3,500 mile sea voyage in 2009.

Their experiences inspired many of the stories in the production, which are intertwined with sea myths and legends.

Actor Kieran Edwards, who plays a Norwegian sailor from World War Two as well as himself in the production, said: “We went on the voyage as we had a few new members of the company and the idea was to get to know each other and experience the sea for ourselves. It was really strange meeting everyone for the first time and then realising we were actually going to be on a cargo ship for 12 days.

“I was a bit worried at first about being on the ship unable to get off for so long and on the first day I didn’t feel good, but then you kind of get used to it. We were playing music on board, we had violins, guitars, accordians, and the Romanian crew really got involved too. We spent evenings with them singing sea shaties. It was quite odd really.”

The company sailed from Le Havre in France to Guadalupe in the West Indies on the French container ship and were rocked in storms, delayed by dock strikes and learnt first-hand the power of the sea.

The last performance of the original and exciting production of Tales from a Sea Journey will take place on Thursday December 1, and the audience are in for a treat.

Kieran said: “The show is partly improvised. There’s no script as such but we know the show inside out, what’s going to happen from beginning to end and how we’re going to get there. However it’s quite free and relaxed and we have fun playing on stage and interacting with the audience. We engage with them from the beginning to create a relaxed atmosphere, and there’s a lot of freedom in the show so you never know exactly what’s going to happen.”

The production has toured internationally and the cast intend to go out with a bang in Luton.

Tickets are £9, £7 for concessions, £5 with a Culture Card and £2 for under 26s.

Book online at www.thehatfactory.org or call the box office on 01582 878100 or 01582 547474.