Paint The Town Festival has announced the launch of its 6th season, and the opening night of a brand new touring play; This Wounded Island, specially commissioned for the festival.

‘This Wounded Island’ is created by local theatre company Anything Other Theatre Company, written by Kent based playwright Natalie Mitchell and presented as part of Paint the Town Festival, a theatre and arts festival produced by Lyrici Arts.

A love story, and a love letter to Chatham; ‘This Wounded Island’ explores themes of identity, place and belonging, inspired by stories from the Kent community and looks at one couples relationship linked intrinsically to the closure of the Historic Dockyard Chatham

“When we initially saw a first reading of This Wounded Island, it was clear to us that it would be an incredible addition to the Paint The Town Festival programme. The story is routed in the local area, written by a local writer and having the chance to work with the Dockyard to have this play performed in situ is just the most exciting project.

Paint the Town aims to champion our local stories, our artists and celebrate our amazing local sites – and programming This Wounded Island ticks all of those boxes, but the story also speaks to anyone who has ever experienced a life-change, a love affair or ever queried what will happen next. We can’t wait to have the community come together and see stories they can relate to, brought to life in this iconic setting” (Natalie Clarke, Co-producer Paint the Town Festival)

The play was created over the last year through workshops with the Dockyard’s volunteers who were ex Dockyard Apprentices, as well as Age UK and local residents. The Dockyard’s collections team directed the writer and director to relevant documents in The Historic Dockyard Chatham’s archives to inform the writing.

Anything Other Theatre Company aims to explore divisive subjects and put underrepresented voices at the centre of their work. In addition, they work to bring people together to create communities on, and beyond the stage. In this case they have worked closely with the community to explore the human story of the closure of the Dockyard. The theatre company have brought together some brilliant artists to create this new play for a public audience.

Anything Other are proud to be an all-female creative and producing team, representing and gaining visibility for underrepresented voices in theatre. Anything Other performed their first show at Edinburgh Festival, gaining 5* reviews from A Younger Theatre, and were invited to perform at the New Diorama as part of Incoming Festival and at VAULT Festival the following year.
The play will take place at The Historic Dockyard Chatham on Wednesday 1st and Thursday 2nd May in the Mess Deck. Please visit www.lyriciarts.com for more information and to purchase tickets to the play.