Canal theatre coming to Titford Pump House

A TOURING theatre company will perform a new double bill at an event hosted by Birmingham Canal Navigations Society.

Acts of Abandon, by Alarum Theatre, will be performed on Saturday, February 15, 7.30pm, at Titford Pump House, Engine Street, Oldbury B69 4NL.

The first of the performances is The Muck and Shovel Brigade, which follows the life, and near death, of the Droitwich as volunteers campaign, cajole and labour for more than 50 years to bring it back into use after the Act of Parliament in 1939 that had legally abandoned it.

A moving tale of reeds and brambles, wellies, anoraks and mud up to your knees.

The second, The Mary Rose, is based on an allegedly true story, involving a boat, a brothel and a long-forgotten law… It all adds up to some pretty racy goings-on in Wolvercote on the Southern Oxford.

Another Act of Parliament, passed in the early 18th century, but never repealed, allowed a brothel on a boat – as long as there were no more than two customers on board at any one time!

The Mary Rose, ‘a boat of ill repute’ tells a tale of two women who weren’t breaking the law – which did not amuse the local constabulary.

They are by Heather Wastie and Kate Saffin, known for ‘Idle Women of the Wartime Waterways’.

BCNS will provide some light refreshments.

Tickets £6 are limited owing to capacity, so interested people are asked to reserve their seats online at Eventbrite (www.eventbrite.co.uk) and pay on the door. Put Acts of Abandon in the search box on the Eventbrite site to register.