The Stage

The Man Who Left the Titanic

Published Thursday 9 September 2010 at 12:24 by John Thaxter

Twenty years after the tragic sinking of the Titanic on its maiden voyage, the White Star chairman is holed up in his Connemara cottage, having another wakeful nightmare as he reflects on the horrors of 1,517 souls perishing in the icy waters of the north Atlantic.

Joseph Bruce Ismay, portrayed here by Pat Abernethy with a surly turn of phrase, is now best remembered as the man who jumped into the last lifeboat instead of going down alongside his captain and crew. Ismay was savaged by the transatlantic press for deserting the ship while women and children were still on board, but official opinion exonerated him and on the basis of this short play by Patrick Prior it seems a fair verdict.

But his conscience is pricked by the architect of the Titanic, drowned hero of the hour Thomas Andrews, played by Dave Marsden as a reproachful leprechaun, wagging his accusing finger at Ismay while endlessly finding ways to rephrase those hard to answer questions of responsibility.

Beyond a parade of well-documented fact, herein lies the problem of making this piece work as drama since there is finally no meeting ground between victim and tormentor beyond an agreement to disagree.

Marsden assumes various secondary characters to add variety to his interrogation, but Abernethy’s Ismay effectively responds to every question with the simple answer that he did nothing wrong. And that’s about it.