Slung Low’s Flood Part Two: Abundance By James Phillips Gets Underway

The first live performances of Flood Part Two: Abundance, the latest chapter in a major new work by the acclaimed theatre company Slung Low, have now taken place as part of Hull UK City of Culture 2017.

Directed by artistic director Alan Lane and written by award-winning playwright James Phillips, Abundance is the next stage in Flood, an extraordinary year-long epic commissioned for Hull 2017, which is being told online, live in Hull and on BBC television.

Flood Part Two: Abundance is being performed until Saturday on a series of specially constructed floating stages in Victoria Dock, a historic location now surrounded by the homes of local people, with the night sky and the Humber as a backdrop.

This exceptional production features a cast of professional actors and a chorus made up of people drawn from the local community and across Hull. As well as spoken word and live action, there is song, a specially recorded choir and special effects, including projected moving image.

Flood Part Two: Abundance follows Part One: From the Sea, a film that was released online earlier this year. This can still be seen at hull2017.co.uk/flood and begins with a woman being pulled from the sea:
Flood is the story of what happened when the world was destroyed and how the people who lived tried to make it new again.

One day it starts to rain and no-one knows why. And it doesn’t stop. Far out on the North Sea a fisherman raises a girl in his net, miraculously alive from the deep sea. Is she one of the migrants now washing up on English shores? Or someone sent for some higher purpose?

Slung Low make adventures for audiences outside conventional theatre spaces, each with a powerful, moving story at its heart. The ground-breaking Leeds-based theatre company, have over the last weeks and months set up home at Victoria Dock in Hull, building a relationship with local residents as they have developed this sell-out production.

Flood is their most ambitious and experimental project to date, mixing live performance, special effects, film and digital elements to tell the story in four compelling parts across an entire year. People seeing it will be able to experience each section as a stand-alone piece, or follow the entire series with each part enriching and linking to every other.

All performances of Flood Part Two: Abundance are sold out, but people will be able to see the follow up, Flood Part Three: To the Sea, when it is broadcast on BBC television this summer.

The final, live instalment, Part Four: New World, will be performed at Victoria Dock in October 2017. Further information, including how to buy tickets, will be released in due course.

Flood’s epic adventures come to audiences in Hull and beyond with support from The Space, Arts Council England, BBC Arts and Spirit of 2012.

Alan Lane, artistic director of Slung Low, said:

“Working with Hull 2017 has allowed us to imagine a larger, more engaging adventure for audiences than ever before. Flood is theatrically and politically the most ambitious work we’ve ever made and the chance to tell that story in Hull throughout this most thrilling year for the city is something we’re really excited about.”

Martin Green, Director Hull 2017, said:

“It is wonderful to be working with Slung Low, one of the most brilliant companies in the UK. As our second season gets underway Flood embarks us on an extraordinary journey, which over the next months will stimulate, challenge and ask questions of the audience in an epic piece of storytelling.”

Debbie Lye, Chief Executive, Spirit of 2012, added:

“Spirit of 2012 is delighted to help bring The Flood to Hull. This hugely ambitious theatre piece further raises Hull’s profile on the cultural map during 2017 and will resonate in the memory far beyond. It is bold, world class art that people across the entire city can also recognise as part of their unique heritage and enjoy together. I’m excited that Spirit is a part of it.”