Titanic The Inquiry by Chris Burgess & John Plews. Upstairs at the Gatehouse, Highgate Village, London N6 until 18 August 2024.

4✩✩✩✩ Review: William Russell.

“A night to remember.”

The sinking of the Titanic has been filmed several times with varying degrees of dramatic licence but there is still plenty to tell – in 1912 in May and June a public inquiry was held in London and Burgess and Plews have used the transcripts of evidence given by several survivors to provide the basis for this intriguing evening of theatre. As well as the evidence Plews, who also plays Sir Rufus Isaacs, the Attorney General who chaired the inquiry, delivers an illustrated lecture with details of the sinking, the numbers who died and those seldom mentioned like the people who sailed with it to its first stop in Ireland and then got off, or the six Chinese who technically were not on the ship's passenger list, five of whom survived. There is also information about the construction of the ship and the reasons why it sailed with so few lifeboats. Quite simply it was to allow more space for the rich to promenade. None of the films mention that the captain, who went down with his ship, was actually a replacement and had been appointed because White Star needed to get wealthy passengers to travel and were marketing the sailings as luxury travel – their rival, Cunard, was sold on the speed of the crossing. Nor do they explain why the lookouts had no binoculars – the fact was the officer who had the key to the cupoard in which they were kept had been replaced before it sailed and taken it with him. It all adds up to a night to remember and one which will send the audience as Plews advises them in his post performance talk to seek out the material about the sinking on line. A self confessed Titanorak Plews was co-author of Iceberg Right Ahead which was staged at the Gatehouse in 2012 and some of the dialogue from that is used in this account.

Cast

John Plews – Sir Rufus Isaacs.

Liam Wells – Frederick Fleet.

Edwin Coutts – Reginald Lee.

John Colmans – Charles Lightoller.

Debbie Lane – Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon.

David Lane – J. Bruce Ismay.

Shirley Ryder – Violet Jessop.

Steve Chapman – Robert Hiughens.

Miranda Cheesman – Molly Brown.

Mary Musker – Ettie Dean.

Creatives

Director – John Plews.

Lighting – Al;astair Warr,

Graphics – Katie Plews.

3D animation – Dr Sam Willis.