White Star of the North

Lyric Theatre, Belfast

THE YEAR is 1912, a major date in the history of Belfast. While some 50,000 opponents of Home Rule queue up to sign the Ulster Covenant, the magnificent flagship of the White Star Line leaves Belfast on its doomed maiden voyage.

Among a deluge of commemorative work scheduled for the month ahead is this play by Rosemary Jenkinson, commissioned by the Belfast Titanic Society. For inspiration, she had to look no further than her own family tree. Her antecedents had been touched by several of the play’s themes – divided loyalties over the political future of Ireland, the Ne Temere decree of 1907 concerning mixed marriages, mass emigration to the US and the shattering of dreams on that fateful night in the north Atlantic.

Given the political and social context of the time, any one of these would provide a writer with meaty subject matter. Gathered together and thrust upon one small family circle, the script creaks at the seams with the weight of them all.

At the heart of a promising storyline, into which are pitched a plethora of historical, religious, moral, scientific and literary references, is the domestic situation of a widowed doctor Robert Massey (Ruairí Conaghan). For all his liberal views, knowledge and medical expertise, he cannot cure his daughter Evelyn (Róisín Gallagher) of her depression over the breakdown of her marriage to a Catholic and the loss of a child, nor can he prevent his irresponsible son Crawford (Andrew Simpson) from joining the ranks of the UVF.

Then he has an idea. He will use his hard-earned savings to send them away in search of new opportunities – on board Titanic. Des Kennedy’s nicely rounded production is set off a treat by Ciarán Bagnall and Diana Ennis’s handsome set, lighting and costume designs. Bagnall effects a single heart-stopping moment out of the disaster at the heart of the story, when a blackout signals the fateful moment of impact.

Performances are of a high standard, but there remains work to be done on a script that bounces unfathomably between tragic issues and flippant one-liners, while crucial dilemmas are resolved in the blink of an eye.

Runs until April 14th