WATCH: Rhiannon Faith’s DROWNTOWN comes to Worthing

Seemingly abandoned, there is no one to help but themselves. Stuck between the remains of a broken community and the vast bleakness of the sea, they struggle with isolation, shame and failed support systems. But there is also hope, as audiences will discover on Saturday, May 27 at 7.30pm at Worthing’s Connaught Theatre.

There is always hope, Rhiannon says. Bold and brave, at times bleak in keeping with its subject matter, the show uses autobiographical testimonials and text to give voice to the vulnerable and unheard in modern Britain’s areas of social deprivation. With tenderness and honesty, the show holds up a mirror to a society at tipping point, Rhiannon says.

Performed and devised with a cast of six (Dominic Coffey, Sam Ford, Shelley Eva Haden, Donald Hutera, Finetta Oliver-Mikolajska and Marla King) the show shines a light on individual suffering and discusses loneliness, social isolation, bereavement and suicide. Suitable for over 16s, it contains strong language and scenes that some may find upsetting.

“It is about people in our communities and towns that feel on the outskirts either emotionally or locationally or just don't feel that they're part of the community. We were setting the piece of work in a coastal location, and really the title is because it is about people that feel that they are drowning. People are disconnected, and that is what the show is looking at. It is about these six strangers that enter this coastal town and are on the beach and it all feels very dark. And they have come to the beach for a purpose and that purpose is not to be on the land. They have arrived with their inner suffering and with their sense of being challenged by society that they feel they are not meant to be a part of. I guess the thing that we're focusing on is the lack of support. The piece looks at the fact that on the beach the lifeguard is not there. The lifeguard is a metaphor for government and wealth and power. They are waiting for someone to do something about the state of our society and to do something about the people that are perhaps marginalised within our communities, the people who are waiting for a lifeguard in their own lives. The lifeguard in the piece is like an absence... the absence of support.

“I just feel it's important to tackle the fact that there are a lot of communities that are not surviving and there are people that are effectively drowning within their own communities. There are a lot of fantastic charities that are making really important contributions and supporting people but they just don't have the infrastructure to really change things and that's what we need. We need for people to feel valued and loved.

“But there is hope. There is always hope. I think I've always been quite optimistic as a person. There is a character in the show who comes onto the beach and she is digging for the entirety of the show. She has a detector and she is trying to find a moral compass. She's trying to find hope. She wants to find hope in the shadows. Sometimes we need hope and the momentum to pull us through.”

Rhiannon set up the company about 15 years ago.