The Maurie, written by Writing on the Wall’s Mike Morris, directed by Carl Cockram, and brought to audiences by the team that produced Waiting for Brando, is based on a 1920s short story by rediscovered Liverpool seaman and writer George Garrett. It celebrates the mighty ‘scouse boat’ The Mauretania, and the lives and conflicts of those who worked below decks in the ‘Subterranean Theatre’ of the ships’ stokehold. George Garrett, Merchant Seaman, writer and playwright, worked on The Mauretania as a stoker in the early 1920s. He lived in New York between 1923 and 1926 where he roomed with future Hollywood actors and worked to hone his craft while writing two plays heavily influenced by his hero, Eugene O’Neill. In the late 1930s thirteen of his short stories were published alongside the writings of George Orwell, Christopher Isherwood and W.H. Auden – an incredible achievement for a self-taught working class writer. He was a founder member of Merseyside Left Theatre, later to become The Unity Theatre.
George Garrett Archive project Manager Mike Morris says,“Garrett described the scene in the engine rooms of the Mauretania as a ‘Subterranean Theatre’; it’s a fitting tribute to Garrett, and the stokers that their contribution to Liverpool’s maritime history is recognised as part of the Liverpool’s One Magnificent City celebrations.”
Set in the engine room of The Mauretania, one of the ‘huge Scouse Boats’ from Cunard’s precursor The White Star Line, The Maurie explores the lives and conflicts of the Stokers, the below deck crew who powered the ship across the Atlantic. In celebrating the mighty Cunard line and the lives of those who worked below decks, The Maurie will be a unique and exciting dramatic production, guaranteed to be a highlight of Liverpool’s cultural calendar for 2015.
Tickets are available from Liverpool Philharmonic Hall Box office or by Telephone on 0151 709 3789. Tickets are priced at £15 with concessions available at £10. Click Here for Tickets: www.writingonthewall.org.uk. The play comes to The Cunard Building between the 2nd and 13th June