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Edinburgh Fringe 2024

Boiler Room Six: A Titanic Story

Genre: Solo Show

Venue: Greenside @ George Street

Festival:


Low Down

Boiler Room Six is a powerful solo performance that goes beyond what you may think you know about the sinking of the Titanic. The use of evocative sound and lighting design brings you right down into the bowels of the ship itself, becoming a sensory barrage with heart-breaking result. This is a moving fifty minutes of theatre that gives a voice to the forgotten  workers who worked tirelessly to keep the ship afloat. 

Review

There is a moment in Boiler Room Six, a new solo show at Greenside George Street, that takes my breath away. The noise suddenly stops, the heat of the boiler room seems to dissipate, and we are, for the first time, on the deck of the doomed ship itself. The production is full of moments like these, where you catch yourself looking up to see the looming smokestacks, or expect to suddenly be doused with ice-cold water. The combination of lighting and sound design, superb direction, and a masterful performance by Max Beken come together for a truly wondrous fifty minutes of theatre. 

Tom Foreman’s new play starts us off getting to know stoker Frederick Williams Barrett, working on the Titanic in hopes of finding a new life in New York after a bad breakup. Throughout the first act, we learn the job of the coal trimmer and the elaborate dance that keeps the ship afloat. In New York, he and his fellow workers say, they will be able to make their fortunes. After all, “first class is just third class, twice removed.” We, the audience, know a lot of these men aren’t going to make it to New York. Those of us who consider ourselves Titanic nerds will also be quick to notice that Barrett’s position in Boiler Room Six, on the night shift no less, is going to put him right in the heart of the action long before anyone above realizes how serious the situation is. 

Most of our fascination with the Titanic comes from a juxtaposition of wealth with tragedy, how there is an equalizing effect when an event such as something like this happens, as death doesn’t care what your boarding ticket says. This ignores the fact that only twenty-three percent of survivors were crew members. Many of the staff knew the truth: that the lifeboats were there to ferry people to a waiting rescue ship, and when none was available, they were on their own to find what safety they could. Boiler Room Six reminds us of the men who chose to stay below, keeping the boilers going so that more might survive. Foreman’s story is a brilliant addition to the canon of Titanic literature, and indeed solo plays in general. 

Boiler Room Six: A Titanic Story is at Greenside @ George Street Lime Studio at 12:40 through 24 August.

Published