The docker image is outdated and I couldn't get it working out of the box
I had to do the following to get it working:
$ sudo docker run --name=towncrier -it --rm -p 9999:8080 robn/towncrier bash
and then inside the running container (i noticed that the Dockerfile is still using starman in the carton exec line whereas it now requires plackup instead)
git pull
carton install --deployment
carton exec plackup --port 8080 bin/app.pl