THE HAY WAIN PRODUCTION 

As part of Colchester + Ipswich Museums Constable 250, John Constable’s most famous landscape has been loaned out to Christchurch Museum and Art Gallery in Ipswich during the summer of 2026.

To mark the occasion, the museum is putting on a special performance of a play which asks audiences to take a very different look at Constable’s famous landscape.

The show is being staged by East Anglian-based theatre company, Packing Shed Theatre, who specialise in producing work inspired by the people and places of the area.

This highly acclaimed, atmospheric play with music has been described as East Anglia’s very own Les Miserables, bringing to life the people that populate the picture, lives defined not by simplicity and virtue, but by hardship, hope and resilience.

Turning the traditional, bucolic, chocolate box ideal of The Hay Wain on its head, you’ll never look at the landscape in quite the same way again.

Packing Shed’s Artistic Director, Neil Jones, said: “Our show invites audiences to take a closer look at Constable’s painting, from the inside out, telling the story of the people in the picture itself, rather than Constable and how he created it.

“In our show we reveal what lies beneath the idyllic brush strokes. Bringing to life the people that populate the painting, lives defined not by simplicity and virtue, but by hardship, hope and resilience.”

Packing Shed Theatre makes work inspired by the East with people from the East, whether that’s site-specific verbatim theatre inspired by migrants both young and old; to the retelling of ancient myths and legends in modern settings; to producing an audio podcast prequel to George Orwell’s 1984, called 1954, available now on Spotify.