Life Raft

– Every man for himself.
– I'd say we're better off sticking together.

In a mysterious dystopia, against a backdrop of war, a life raft filled with children is adrift at sea – their passenger liner sunk by an unknown and unseen enemy.

As darkness falls and their rations dwindle, fear, superstition and madness start to take hold. Hours turn into days, and it becomes clear that not all of them will make it back to dry land alive...

Life Raft is a thrilling contemporary adaptation of The Raft of the Medusa, Georg Kaiser's 1945 play, written during his exile from Nazi Germany, and inspired by a terrifying true story.

Written by Fin Kennedy in collaboration with Bristol Old Vic's acclaimed Young Company, and originally performed by them under the direction of Melly Still, this large-cast play for young actors is a dark study in the psychology of survival – and an urgent allegory for our times.

This definitive edition of the play is accompanied by a series of interactive games specially created by award-winning games designer Tassos Stevens, allowing young people a deeper exploration of the play’s themes, and the opportunity to create their own new stories inspired by the scenario.

Fin Kennedy is an award-winning playwright of theatre and radio whose plays are regularly produced in the UK and abroad. In 2021 he set up Applied Stories, a digital production company making audio drama and online training.

His first play Protection was produced at Soho Theatre in 2003, where he was also Pearson writer-in-residence. His second play How To Disappear Completely and Never Be Found won the 38th Arts Council John Whiting Award and has been produced around the world. It has become a firm favourite with student and amateur performance groups and is among Nick Hern Books' most licensed plays.

Fin has 20 years' experience writing for teenagers, often through a process of being embedded in an inner-city school or youth theatre.

His first two plays for teenagers, Locked In (2006) and We Are Shadows (2008) were produced by Half Moon Young People's Theatre and toured nationally. Life Raft (2015) for Bristol Old Vic Young Company, has been translated into German and French for use in schools across Europe.

From 2006-2014 Fin was writer-in-residence at Mulberry School for Girls in east London, for whom he has written seven plays, published in two volumes by Nick Hern Books as The Urban Girl's Guide to Camping and other plays and The Domino Effect and other plays for teenagers.

Fin also writes for radio and has had ten Afternoon Plays broadcast on BBC Radio 4 including The Good Listener, a returning series set inside GCHQ and On Kosovo Field, a collaboration with musician PJ Harvey.

Fin's most recent venture is the UK's first fully online Playwrighting for Teachers course, to pass on many of the original creative writing exercises he has devised over the years.

Friedrich Carl Georg Kaiser, known as Georg Kaiser, (1878–1945) was a German dramatist. His plays include The Burghers of Calais, From Morn to Midnight and The Raft of the Medusa.

Tassos Stevens is an (ex-)psychologist, storyteller, and playmaker sparking change, with over twenty-five years of experience in the creative and social change sectors. He is a critically-acclaimed theatre-maker and BAFTA-winning game-maker with a PhD in Psychology.

He is the founder and director of Coney, an arts and social change charity based in Tower Hamlets and Gloucester, working across the UK and internationally.