The Titanic story, delicately told...

10:46am Thursday 13th December 2007

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TITANIC: THE MUSICAL, SALISBURY AMATEUR OPERATIC SOCIETY

A MUSICAL about the first and final voyage of the Titanic? Difficult, surely, to treat such an epic tragedy with toe-tapping tunes, romantic duets and happy chorus lines.

Yet it worked. It worked beautifully. A cast of 45, directed by Ken Robertson-Scott, took us through the events of the six days leading up to the catastrophe while, overhead, black and white newsreel footage of the time added its own emotional impact.

From the outset the audience shared the hopes and dreams of the passengers and crew. For Captain Smith (Geoff Heard) this was to be the crowning achievement of his long seafaring career while, for Joseph Ismay (David Coxon), White Star Shipping Line director, there was the prospect of a lifetime of being able to say: "I was on her maiden voyage".

And for others there were dreams of promotion, marriage or new directions.

The causes of the disaster are part of naval history, particularly the emphasis which was put on luxury and speed at the expense of safety.

The audience already knew the heartbreaking ending.

So what made this show so compulsive? There was the music, of course, which, under the leadership of John Dempster, reflected the mood of the moment and added its own emotional appeal.

Then there was the almost unbearable awareness that, for the majority of the passengers, there would be no happy ending.

The show lasted two hours and five minutes. This, poignantly, exactly matched the time between the Titanic hitting the iceberg and finally disappearing into the frozen Arctic sea, taking with it the lives and dreams of 1,500 souls, the great majority of them third-class passengers, together with stewards, cooks, scullions and other workers who smoothed the luxurious lives of the first-class passengers.

A wonderfully memorable and deeply moving performance.

Anne Hill