Diving Through Time, Tilbury Fort

Diving Through Time was a site-specific community play at Tilbury Fort, an English Heritage property in the Thames Gateway performed over a week in August 2005. It was the culmination of a two year long English Heritage Outreach project in Tilbury. The play was researched, written, directed, produced, marketed, performed and supported backstage by people from the local community, mainly young people aged between 15 and 25.

The production was a promenade performance around Tilbury Fort, exploring the unique historic events, people and places in Tilbury and its fort. Scenes from the play that the young people wrote include: Elizabeth I’s Armada speech, the Jacobite rebellion of 1746, death at the cricket match at the Fort in 1776, the Dockers strike in 1912 and the Great Flood of 1953

The play was a highlight of the Thurrock Festival, a four week long extravaganza in July 2005 and Thurrock’s first ever arts festival.

The creation of this play was a vital step in putting the Fort back into the heart of the community. Since work on the play started, there has already been a change in the relationship between the fort and the local community, with a decrease in anti-social behaviour and greatly improved use of the site by local residents and many hundreds coming to open days, taking part in the Play and other activities.

For more information, visit: http://arts.thurrock.gov.uk