Katrina uses survivor testimonies and the rich musical tradition of New Orleans to tell the story of the immediate aftermath of the 2005 hurricane, shedding light on some of the more extraordinary and under-reported aspects of the situation.

Staged in a five-storey warehouse on London’s south bank, Katrina takes the audience on an odyssey through a drowned city, enveloped in the most immersive of visual and aural designs, in the company of individuals displaced and abandoned within their own city. The soundscape runs for the duration of the show, with both live and pre-recorded music featuring heavily, feeding into a 90-minute score which includes voice-overs from John Hurt, among others.

Virgil, a decadent old New Orleanian, dies during Hurricane Katrina. Trapped by the rising floodwater his partner Beatrice determines to take his body to safety at City Hall. During her journey she encounters a number of other survivors; New Orleans residents Miranda, Daniel and Cal as well as trapped visitors Larry and Lorrie Robinson; and hears their stories.

Katrina is a promenade production composed entirely of accounts provided by both survivors and those responsible for the failed relief effort following the hurricane which narrowly missed New Orleans in August 2005.  The resulting storms breached rotting levees and emptied neighbouring Lake Pontchartrain into the city. Marooned by floodwater that swamped over 80% of their homes, the inhabitants had to wait a week without food or clean water before their own government came to their aid.

For more about Katrina, read the First Night Feature and the Big Interview with Wunmi Mosaku.