Making waves at this year’s International Youth Arts Festival is a musical retelling of Tony Bullimore’s dramatic brush with death in the Southern Ocean. Rosanna Greenstreet catches up with the nautical hero
The creative juices are flowing in Kingston this month, as July 7 sees the start of the ninth International Youth Arts Festival. Featuring theatre, dance, comedy, music, visual art, spoken word, circus, workshops, exhibitions and even a carnival procession, the 10-day extravaganza is the UK’s biggest multi-arts festival for performers aged under 27 and attracts 30,000 visitors.
Festival hub is the Rose, where entertainment is available both day and night. And among the highlights will be Sea Stories, which takes place at the theatre on July 13. Directed by Jeremy James Taylor, the musical theatre triple bill begins with The Upside Down Sailor, inspired by the dramatic survival story of round-the-world yachtsman Tony Bullimore as recounted in his own book, Saved. With lyrics bySir Richard Stilgoe set to the music of South-West London composer Roxanna Panufnik, the production is narrated by Game of Thrones actor Robert Pugh and stars the Surrey-based television presenter and actress Angellica Bell.
Tony Bullimore is a living legend. As far back as 1985 he was named Yachtsman of the Year, but it was in 1997 that real fame came thudding against his hull. During the single-handed Vendée Globe non-stop round-the-world race – the ‘Everest of the Seas’, as it is memorably known – Bullimore’s yacht, Exide Challenger, capsized 2,500 kilometres from Australia. Suffering hypothermia, dehydration and frostbite, Tony sheltered for five days in a tiny air pocket within the upturned hull before being rescued.
He emerged relatively unscathed, with only the loss of a finger to frostbite, and his heroic survival captured the world’s imagination. As one of the journalists who interviewed him soon after he hit dry land, I am more than a little curious to discover what the past 20 years have done to him. Did his tumultuous experience lead to the loss of his sea legs, as well as one of his digits?
“No, I’ve been round the world two or three times in races and across the Atlantic at least a dozen times. I’d like to do a bit more, actually!” he announces cheerfully, from his Bristol home. “Having no food and no water, being very cold and having your finger chopped off isn’t too good, but it’s not the worst thing in the world.”
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Narrator: Robert Pugh
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Paul Marc Mitchell
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Music: Roxanna Panufnik
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Tangle Photography
Actress: Angelica Bell
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Lyrics: Sir Richard Stilgoe
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Tiffin Boys Choir
I am not sure that Lalel, his long-suffering wife of 54 years, portrayed on stage by Angellica Bell, would agree. It is no surprise to learn that she has asked him to quit the sea “plenty of times”. When he went missing, says Tony, she was “extremely worried and did a lot of praying, but told everyone that I was ‘out there and will come back’. She was right.”
In subsequent years, Tony won his class in the Rolex Fastnet Race – Cowes to Plymouth via the Fastnet Rock off Ireland – and the Rolex Middle Sea Race in the Mediterranean. He also came second in the Oryx Quest 2005 non-stop round-the-world race from Doha, in Qatar. Once again, however, he was assailed by his seemingly unremitting misfortune.
“I won about £300,000, but I never got paid, as the company who organised the event went bankrupt. More recently, my last project fell down because I didn’t have a boat. I was preparing my big racing catamaran for a major record in the Southern Ocean and the team doing most of the building work asked to borrow it. Unfortunately they weren’t proficient sailors. They went down to Northern Spain for a week, capsized the boat in the Bay of Biscay and lost it. That really did cost me dearly: not only had I lost my boat, but the insurance company went bust.”
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Perhaps the universe is trying to tell him something. Veteran lyricist Sir Richard Stilgoe, who has adapted his story, certainly thinks so. Yet he cannot help but admire his tenacity.
“I am a keen sailor, but like most sensible keen sailors, I look at the weather forecast and go out when it’s nice,” he admits. “Tony set out to sail round the world, and the quickest way is to go right down to the bottom and round the Antarctic. The trouble is that it’s minus god-knows-how-many degrees down there, with enormous winds and waves. You’re all by yourself and have to sail day and night and grab 10 seconds of occasional sleep. And it’s no help when your keel falls off!
Yachstman Tony Bullimore today
“Tony is a hero. He swam around in the freezing cold water, found a little air pocket and sat in it for five days with just a Mars bar. It’s an astonishing story of human survival. And we are all grabbed by that, aren’t we?”
Together with Roxanna Panufnik, Stilgoe has produced what he terms “a modern Peter and the Wolf”.
“What I have done, frankly, is abridge Tony’s book. It’s a matter of filing it down to leave plenty of room for Roxanna’s music and wonderful noises. The players have to imitate whales and radar beacons and all sorts of things.”
Participants include musicians from the Royal College of Music, dance students from Kingston University and Tiffin Boys Choir. There are two performances on the day (July 13), at 1.30pm and 7.30pm. Tony and Lalel are coming to see the show and at 6.30pm Stilgoe will conduct a Q&A, open to ticket holders of both performances.
“I’ll be interviewing Tony, of course, but just as interesting is his wife, Lalel. I want to ask her: ‘Why?’ Why does she let him do it?”
Now that’s something we’d all like to know!
- To book tickets for Sea Stories and for a full programme of IYAF events (July 7-16),go to: iyafestival.org.uk
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