Always on
This project successfully funded on 10th May 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Raising the Wreck- Revisited!
Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
£45
raised so far
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Aim
We plan to tour Raising the Wreck Revisited focussing on maritime ecology and an exploration of the gendered body and women pirates.
https://www.sea-changetheatre.com/raising-the-wreck
We are an international theatre company based in the UK, founded by “queer theatre legend” Sue Frumin (as hailed by Out Savvy) to challenge the imbalance of roles in theatre and on screen.
Our past productions include an all-female promenade production of The Tempest staged in Greece 
and the acclaimed Fine and Dandy!
Our core team now includes actor and creative Hayley Cartwright ( Hayley Cartwright), whose extensive experience across the arts strengthens our bold, collaborative practice. We are proudly inclusive, striving for equality across background, sexuality, gender, class, ability and race.
In 1985, the ground-breaking company Gay Sweatshop commissioned Sue to write Raising the Wreck. Performed by an all-female, multi-racial cast—unusual and radical for its time—the production brought lesbian lives centre stage. The original cast included Booker Prize–winner Bernardine Evaristo, who remembers it as “a ground-breaking drama bringing lesbian lives to the fore.”
At just 16, future TS Eliot Prize–winner Joelle Taylor saw the play and describes it as “a pioneering piece of unapologetically women’s theatre… loud, vibrant, hilarious and somehow holy. And I credit Sue with helping me to become the writer I am today!”
In 2026, we will tour the North West with Raising the Wreck – Revisited, newly updated for today’s audiences. Moving, funny and fiercely insightful, the play draws on the true stories of legendary women pirates including Grace O'Malley, Mary Read and Ching Shih.
We are thrilled to have received an Arts Council grant — hooray! — but bringing this ambitious production to life requires further support. Your donation will help us to:
Hire theatre venues
Secure rehearsal space
Build the set
Deliver community workshops
Transport and install an exhibition on gendered bodies by artist EM Parry
With your support, we can continue making bold, inclusive, history-shaping theatre.
Thank you so much, Sue, Hayley and the rest of the creative team!
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made