His Guardian obituary recalls, 'The Zincbar, staged every fortnight at the Basement Club in the city, was a gloriously unpredictable crucible into which both gold and rubbish were thrown: comedians, poets and situationists alike.

Bunting had a long-held ambition to create an open-air theatre for Brighton, and had even identified the perfect location, the bowling lawn on Dyke Road Park.

The biggest was the BOAT benefit at the Dome, on 16 June 2013, featuring Stewart Lee, Tim Vine, Simon Evans, Joanna Neary, Mark Thomas and Susan Murray as MC.

The artists who contributed include the cartoonists Chris Riddell and Guy Venables; the comic/graphic novels illustrator Clint Langley; the designer Cressida Bell; the film director Darren Walsh; the oil painter Sam Hewitt; and the television writer Graham Duff.

The theatre's final design was the work of the architect, Graeme Hawkins, of the Miller Bourne partnership, who offered his services for free.

BOAT opened on 9 May 2015, with a gala night, featuring Flick Ferdinando, Nick Pynn, Joanna Neary, Richard Durrant, Simon Evans, Steve Wrigley, Glenn Richardson, Dan Atkinson and the Brighton Early Musical Community Choir (with which Bunting sang).

Boost the Boat, on 3 July 2015, was an evening of stand-up comedy, starring Tim Vine, Shane Richie, Simon Evans, Joanna Neary, and George Egg.

'[14] According to the BOAT website, the theatre 'will operate from the beginning of May to the end of September each year and will provide a space for local artists alongside national touring productions.

For the summer of 2015, Mitchell programmed Radio City Theatre, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night, Our Mutual Friend, The Eunuch, As You Like It, Madame Butterfly, Iolanthe, Hamlet, the Nettle Knickers Puppet Show, Trumpton Comes Alive!

(a musical celebration of Trumpton), The Tragedian, Prodigal Theatre's trilogy about Edmund Kean, Shakespeare in a Day, The Brighton Beach Boys, and Kemble's Riot.

The 2016 programme, running from May to September, included Dr Faustus, Medea, Antigone, Don Giovanni, Heartbreak House, The Importance of Being Earnest, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Ruddigore, Much Ado about Nothing, Hamlet, The Canterbury Tales, As You Like It, Frankenstein, The Revenger's Tragedy, Sense and Sensibility, Ros Barber'sThe Marlowe Papers, Gulliver's Travels, a musical tribute to David Bowie, Sunday in the Park with Jazz, A Midsummer Ceilidh, and a concert by the Soweto Spiritual Singers.

[18]('Performances greeted by howls rarely receive five star reviews, but when they are accompanied by wagging tails and barks of approval the show's rating goes without saying.

The 2017 programme included The Comedy of Errors, The Plain Dealer, The Tempest, The Wind in the Willows, Othello, Blue Remembered Hills, The Merry Wives of Windsor, She Stoops to Conquer, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Peter Pan, The Mikado, The Lost World, Richard III, Pride and Prejudice, Three Men in a Boat, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Cosi Fan Tutte, and Earthquakes in London.

Genres included theatre, comedy, dance, rock, jazz, opera, world music, cabaret, and children's shows.

The Globe players on tour offered a choice of three plays: The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew and Twelfth Night, to be selected by an audience vote.

The Globe players returned bringing a choice of three plays exploring the themes of refuge and displacement:The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night and the rarely performed Pericles Prince of Tyre.

Mytum, previously theatre programme coordinator at London's Actors Centre, told the press, 'Living five minutes from the venue, I fully appreciate the positive impact BOAT has had in its short history on the local community as well as the wider arts sector, and it will be a real honour to help continue the legacy as we look to break new ground in 2020.

The risk of virus transmission is lowered exponentially in an outdoor environment and with the relevant Covid-secure measures in place, open-air venues would be far safer than any beer garden.

'[24] On 6 July, BOAT took part in #LightItinRed, a national action in which hundreds of venues were lit up in 'emergency red', drawing attention to the plight of the UK's live event and entertainment industry.

[25] Three days later, the culture secretary Oliver Dowden announced that outdoor performances, with a limited and socially distanced audience, could resume from 11 July.

[26] In 2020, the programme extended into the winter for the first time, with productions of Hansel and Gretel (A Postmodern Pantomime) and The Snow Queen [27] After two years of disruption, BOAT returned in 2022, with a new box office and toilet building, with a crew room for volunteers, and a full programme of 119 shows, beginning, for the first time, on 8 April and lasting until 25 September.