A Captain and his Steward of a Victorian British Navy vessel find themselves marooned at the bottom of the sea floor after the ocean mysteriously disappears. On the edge of survival and running low on provisions, they hold out hope for rescue, clinging to their sanity by enacting out naval rituals of their seafaring past, all the while trying to block out the nameless and unknowable terrors that litter the sea floor. 

Their odd reverie is dashed however, when a stranger seeking refuge knocks on their cabin door. As these men come face to face with their deepest and darkest fears, their minds slip and madness begins to take hold. For what is a captain without his ship? And what is a ship without water?

Winner of the 2021 London Horror Playwriting competition, The Drought (written by Nina Atesh) is an atmospheric dark thriller about how purpose shapes our lives and mankind's relationship with nature.