A work-in-progress performance combining short fiction, spoken word, sound design and digital mapping led by Michelle Green, Caro C, Maya Chowdhry and David Cooper.

A true island completely surrounded by sea, Hayling is off the south coast of England in Hampshire, near Portsmouth. It is home to a very economically mixed population, including a working class community rich in overlooked histories, from the arcades and smugglers’ tunnels to the nearby military base. Hayling is a place of resilience and contrasts, and as the water rises, there are no climate change deniers to be found.

Starting with the Hayling stories she’s inherited from her family, lead artist Michelle Green seeks out the remembered histories of local people, and explores the geography of the island itself for inspiration. She leaps from memory to fiction, creating a short story collection that will be published as an interactive digital audio map of Hayling. Audiences will listen to or read the stories by navigating a changing map of the island, while the audio element will take a sensitive radio-quality approach, adding depth to the world of each story and providing access to audiences who struggle with text. [Book here.]

Building accessibility into the artistic frame of the project is fundamental to its themes. The stories will explore, amongst other things, the experiences of marginalised communities: the skint, the canny, the ill, the queer – the people who face the wind and build lives on hope, grit, and shingle.

This work-in-progress sharing will reveal the processes of the four artists at a developmental stage of the project, and will include both fictional and non-fictional spoken word, creative soundscapes and an introduction to the map itself.

Audience members will be given the opportunity to feedback their thoughts on what they have experienced. It will be a relaxed performance, meaning that people can move if they need to, tic if they need to, and relax and respond naturally.

‘Hayling Island – stories at sea level’ is funded by Arts Council England. Book for this free event now.