Dock workers' stories wanted to inspire new play

A producer and playwright is looking for stories of dock workers to help bring a new theatre show to life.

Karen Goddard is working to find anyone who has worked at the Port of Felixstowe in Suffolk over the decades for a play called Don't Knock The Dock.

The play has been supported by Arts Council England, the county council and Eastern Angles and follows the lives of two 16-year-old friends who leave school and go on to work on the docks.

Mrs Goddard, who grew up in the town, said the play would celebrate stories of the workers over the years.

"I know a lot of people who left school and went to work down the dock," she explained.

"It was the local industry, that's where people went.

"If we'd been living in a coal mining area they might have gone down the mines... it just happened to be the local place where everyone went to work.

"I've always thought that people don't really know enough of what goes on down there.

"But also I think those stories haven't been celebrated and there are so many people that work down there."

Mrs Goddard and the team are predominantly looking for those who worked on the docks in the 1980s, but they were keen to hear from other decades too.

As well as this she stressed they wanted all types of workers to come forward including women whom she felt were important to include.

"I need more [stories]," she added.

"It doesn't have to be from the port perspective, it's anybody who worked down the dock, so that could be a shipping company, or a haulage company, a lorry driver, or people who worked in the other departments like the canteen, the firefighters, the police."

Mrs Goddard has already begun collating stories and said there had been an "overriding theme of a sense of comradery" between the workers.

"Overwhelmingly they say they wouldn't have missed it for the world and they made such good friends," she continued.

"There's a lot of funny banter you get surrounding it, it's been really fun so far."

Once the stories have been compiled the team, including director Ollie Harrington and sound designer Jack Baxter, will use these to draft the play.

There will then be two public script readings where people will be able to give feedback before the play will then hopefully be put on tour.

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