The Leviathan.

Work on The Leviathan project at The Space in Docklands continues apace. The group have been meeting every Monday night for the last five weeks finding different ways to dramatise texts, photographs and poems relating to the Great Eastern built just the other side of the West Ferry Road. Tonight Tina came over to give some advice on costuming and to have a look at the work.

The work is marvellously low key. The short walk from The Space to the launch site will be punctuated by short readings from different characters - riveters, royalty, Brunel, dockers, investors etc. who'll pop out to join the crowd as they make their way along the Thames Path, adding expectation and number to the arrival at the wharf itself.

Eleanor has found a description of the inside of the Eastern and a group of actors have been using it to create a virtual tour of the ship. It'll be a true act of imagination, asking the audience to recreate the largest ship ever built in a completely empty space. The whole thing is only going to take half an hour to play, but I sense a prototype for a much more ambitious piece of work.

There is a really lovely feel to the group. No sense of pretension or competitiveness, just a desire to use these sessions to tell stories and socialise. It's amateur work at its finest, bringing different people from the community together to enjoy each others company and creativity.

.