Atlantis was our 2021 Hidden Spire project, performed 14 - 17 October 2021.
“May your day be dry, and your home be high.”
A wall of water crashed over the city, so powerful nothing could stop it. House Of Noah Tours invites you to meet the people who live in its wake.
This is a tour of Oxford – but not the one you see in postcards. Eco-warriors fight for the future, and the all-powerful House of Noah watches over a waterlogged world. But what’s really going on, behind the scenes? Are your guides showing you the full story? And how can we find hope again?
Join us to take back the city.
Atlantis was a piece of promenade theatre which took over the whole building, taking audience members on a tour of an Oxford recovering in the aftermath of a devastating flood. The audience were met outside the Old Fire Station by a cast member, and taken through rooms and corridors which had been transformed into a new world.
Scroll down to see photos, read the programme, and find out more about the creative process.
Read the programme
The process
We held our first writing workshop for this show in January 2020. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, we changed tack. We opened out the process, involving members of the public, professionals, and people facing tough times in a series of online prompts. We call this group of people the Creative Collective.
Keep reading to see the work they created, and read one writer's journals of the process.
Lucy's blog posts
January 2020
The first session
Lucy tells us about the first writing session for the play that would eventually become Atlantis.
April 2021
The Drifting
Lucy tells us about how the project changed after the pandemic, and what writing for it was like.
September 2021
Atlantis
Lucy brings us up-to-date with the start of rehearsals, and how the first script reading went.
The Creative Collective
In September 2020 we invited people from across Oxford to join our Creative Collective and show us Oxford through their eyes. We sent those that signed up 3 prompts based around the theme ‘hidden Oxford’. They were invited to respond to each prompt on 1 side of A4 with writing, a drawing, or a photograph.
In early 2021 we began the writing process, inviting the Collective to respond to a series of prompts to help us build the world of a brand new piece of theatre: Atlantis.
See below for different responses to the prompts.
October 2020
Prompt #1
The Creative Collective respond with photographs, drawing and creative writing to the prompt "City of hidden people - an invisible life."
November 2020
Prompt #2
The Creative Collective respond with photographs, drawing and creative writing to the prompt "City of hidden places - a concealed spot."
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December 2020
Prompt #3
The Creative Collective respond with photographs, drawing and creative writing to the prompt "City of hidden objects - a secret thing."