Life Raft (NHB Modern Plays)

– Every man for himself.

– I'd say we're better off sticking together.

In a mysterious dystopia, against a backdrop of war, a life raft filled with children is adrift at sea – their passenger liner sunk by an unknown and unseen enemy.

As darkness falls and their rations dwindle, fear, superstition and madness start to take hold. Hours turn into days, and it becomes clear that not all of them will make it back to dry land alive...

Life Raft is a thrilling contemporary adaptation of The Raft of the Medusa, Georg Kaiser's 1945 play, written during his exile from Nazi Germany, and inspired by a terrifying true story.

Written by Fin Kennedy in collaboration with Bristol Old Vic's acclaimed Young Company, and originally performed by them under the direction of Melly Still, this large-cast play for young actors is a dark study in the psychology of survival – and an urgent allegory for our times.

This definitive edition of the play is accompanied by a series of interactive games specially created by award-winning games designer Tassos Stevens, allowing young people a deeper exploration of the play's themes, and the opportunity to create their own new stories inspired by the scenario.

'Kennedy's agile and sensitive writing brilliantly captures the moment-to-moment urgency of the dilemmas the children face and their varying responses' - Total Theatre

'Dynamic and hard-hitting… packs a hugely resonant punch, asking big, uncomfortable questions about what it means to be human' - Bristol 24/7

'Complex, subtle and genuinely unsettling… an appropriate text to be studied in schools' - Exeunt