Titanic The Musical
Grand Opera House, Belfast
Until Saturday April 8
Titanic The Musical isn’t all-singing, all-dancing; it’s more a light opera with a very solid storyline, well staged and well acted. A large cast of over two dozen passengers and crew acted out the crowds on the quayside in Southampton, the posh and the underprivileged boarding for a voyage of a lifetime.
Food is delivered and the captain checks the maps. Then we were off. Above the stage the senior officers conduct from the bridge, surrounded by white railings; below, first class enjoy the luxury of the floating city, the biggest moving object in the world. Second class look on with envy and in steerage men and women dance and fall in love. It was all going so well. But then unease crept in amongst the officers - an ice field ahead and some large icebergs cause concern.
Act One was long, with good strong singing and plenty of movement, not least the white staircase propelled between areas on deck. The second act is shorter and depicts the panic and the arguments between Bruce Ismay (Martin Allanson), Captain Edward Smith (Graham Bickley) and Thomas Andrews (Ian McLarnon) - a heated debate apportioning blame on each other, all sung in opera style and it’s heavy duty.
There are dramatic moments. First Officer Murdock (Billy Roberts) shooting himself is hard to watch, as is Thomas Andrews clinging onto the rails as the ship tilts alarmingly and he falls into blackness.
There are several false endings but to my mind ending on the poignant tableau of the names of 1,500 souls who perished, most of them crew and in third class only 174 of its approximately 710 passengers survived. In front of this curtain of names stand a row of men and women each with a blanket round their shoulders showing the name Carpathia, the ship that came to the rescue just over 700 survivors; as they turn towards us they tell of their loss, husbands, wives, even children and babies were drowned.
For me it would have been a very emotive and thought provoking final scene but we headed back to witness more goodbyes and the shame of Bruce Ismay who had pressed the Captain for more speed than was safe, who reduced the number of lifeboats from 48 to 16 and climbed aboard one of them and lived to tell the tale.
This is a well considered piece of theatre, though with little chance to form any relationships with characters. It's darkly intense and certainly nothing catchy to hum on the way home, but plenty of memories to relive.
