Correspondences: A Living Canvas on the Estuary Staged on a 106-Year-Old Raybel

Queenborough All Tide Landing, Queenborough, UK

Stepping aboard a 106-year-old historic barge, and watching live performances on a dark room's viewing table while sailing down the river felt like entering another world.

Stepping onto the Queenborough All Tide Landing, I felt a quiet sense of anticipation. Ahead of us waited Correspondences, a truly unique immersive performance created by artist Ben Judd, staged entirely on board a remarkable vessel. It was not just a show to sit and watch; it was an experience that blended living history, physical performance, and the raw elements of nature into something completely unexpected.

The 'Raybel':

Our stage for the day was the historic Raybel, a magnificent Thames sailing barge built over a century ago in 1920 by Wills and Packham at Milton Creek in Sittingbourne. Named after Raymond and Isabel, the twin children of Sully family, this 106 year old vessel carries a rich legacy. She was originally designed as a coastal cargo vessel to carry goods along the Thames. Over the decades, she survived wartime service, a dramatic collision on the river, and years of shifting maritime eras. Today, listed on the National Historic Ships register, she stands as a survivor of a bygone maritime age, carefully preserved as a space for community, art, and culture. Standing on her weathered decks, you could almost feel the decades of river history breathing around you.

The Journey:

Once everyone boarded, we made our way to the open waters. The barge set out on a peaceful 30 to 40-minute journey along the wide rivers and estuaries of north Kent. What makes each boat journey so special and distinct is that no two trips are ever identical; the tides, changing winds, river traffic, and shifting sunlight ensure that every voyage has its own unique character. The exact path we took was never fixed; it shifted organically with the daily moods of the weather.

Out on the open water, the experience became wonderfully real. A remarkably stiff wind was picking up across the estuary, this added immensely to the whole experience, gave us a feel of being out there on the water. We watched the crew work together so closely to handle the boat in these breezy conditions. As we sailed, we noticed colourful maritime flags fluttering against the sky, including the iconic Red Ensign, featuring the Flag of England set against a solid red field. The crew explained to us what these flags signified, their historic tradition and identification on British waters.

We saw the intense effort required as the sail cloth was hauled up, catching the gusting wind, and later watched it carefully managed, lowered, and folded away again as conditions shifted. The sheer physical weight of the gear reminded us how much strength traditional sailing demands. At one point, we even had the rare chance to step up and take a turn rotating the heavy steering wheel. All around us, the scenery was alive with movement, the view included quiet traditional boats to fast jet skis speeding across the open water.

The Performance:

Then, the performance began to unfold around us. While the open deck above became a stage, we, a small audience of just four or five people, slipped below deck into a dark space that was intimate and cozy.

Right in the middle of this dim room stood a camera obscura, an ancient optical phenomenon where light filters through a tiny aperture in a darkened chamber to project a live, moving image of the outside world onto a surface inside, turning the scene completely upside down and back-to-front. Ben Judd stood beside it, gently operating and turning the apparatus to follow the action happening right above our heads. We all crowded around a large circular table with a white surface sitting in the center of the room. The live action from the deck above was projected downward onto the table like watching a presentation using a modern day projector. We could hear the performers on the deck; it felt like watching a living, breathing movie happening just feet away from us, yet captured through light and shadow in real-time.

Up on that deck, framed by our circular screen and heard through the timbers, the performers moved with intensity. It was thrilling and slightly tense to watch them balance securely against the rolling deck, especially as the river wind grew stronger. They used powerful, grounded physical movements and raw vocal expressions with a few chosen words that echoed through the hull and pulled everyone right into the moment. The performance quietly explored deep themes like closeness and distance, and what it means to belong or feel out of place. Without needing spoken dialogue, the movement made us reflect on how we relate to the spaces we inhabit, the communities around us, and our connections to one another.

Looking back:

The entire experience left a lasting impression. Correspondences was a rare harmony of past and present. It took a 106-year-old historic vessel with all its stories of cargo, wind, and tide and turned it into a living canvas. By the time we docked back at Queenborough, stepping off the Raybel felt like returning from a different world; we carried with us the rhythmic sound of the water, the feel of the heavy wheel in our hands, and the quiet magic of a world projected upside down in the dark.

Further Information

Written By: Kanta Biswas

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Correspondences by Ben Judd

Choreographer: Dionysios Tsaftaridis

Composer: Giannis Sfiris

Performers: Surya Dev Chandra, Tonantzin Borrego, Tami Zafeiropoulou, Mika Shirahama

Photography: Yitan Chen, Jinghao Zhang, Ben Judd

Venue & Performance Date: Queenborough All Tide Landing, Queenborough, UK | 26th - 27th September 2026