From Fo’c’sle to Footlights: Maritime Imaginaries in British Musical Theatre
Tue 15 Sept
|Victoria and Albert Museum
As a recipient of the V&A/Bunnett-Muir Musical Theatre Trust, Mollie Carlyle will present her work on 'From Fo'c'sle to Footlights' in a lunchtime talk at the V&A Museum.
Time & Location
15 Sept 2026, 13:00 – 14:00
Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL, UK
About the event
Dr. Mollie Carlyle is a maritime musicologist whose research explores sea shanties, seafaring song traditions, and their cultural afterlives. Her current project, From Fo’c’sle to Footlights: Maritime Imaginaries in British Musical Theatre, examines how the sea has been represented on the British musical stage from the early twentieth century to today. Drawing on the V&A and Bunnett-Muir Musical Theatre Archive, Carlyle will investigate how musicals have reflected and shaped national myths of the sea, engaging with themes of empire, migration, nostalgia, and identity. Her approach blends close musical and dramaturgical analysis with cultural history, situating maritime performance within wider debates in postcolonial and performance studies.