Park Theatre, Finsbury Park – until 2nd April 2022
Reviewed by Bobbi Fenton
5*****
‘Ghosts of the Titanic’ is honestly indescribably good. It follows Emma (Genevieve Gaunt) in her hunt for the truth about the sinking of the Titanic, because her fiancé had died in the sinking, playing in the ship’s band. She believes that the Titanic was doomed to sink from the moment it left the Belfast port, listing different factors such as the fire in the hull, and that she believes that the photo of the iceberg with red paint on it is fake. She meets dodgy ‘newspaper reporter’ Molloy (John Hopkins) who convinces her to help him to write a story for a newspaper. Along the way on her quest for justice, she meets McBride (Fergal McElherron) who had worked on the Titanic while it was in construction, and therefore knows about the shortcuts taken by the higher-ups. His brother, who worked on the ship up to its departure, is also among the many who died in the sinking. Emma begins to uncover the truth with the help of McBride and newspaper publisher Swanson (Lizzy McInnerny) who gives her a folder of evidence of the corruption by the rich men who own everything in the country. By the end of the play, the audience is left wondering what the truth is, as it is a very ambiguous ending. Either Emma is a scam artist looking for a large pay out, she is insane and is believing a delusion about the Titanic and her fiancé, or she is being kept in a mental hospital by the corrupt higher ups who don’t want the truth to expose them. I personally cannot make up my mind, because the amazing acting by Genevieve Gaunt makes it very difficult to decide which ending makes the most sense.
The costumes are beautifully designed by Neil Gordon, and look very authentic to the fashion of 1915, further allowing the audience to immerse themselves in the story. This is further aided by the size of the theatre. The theatre being quite small means that the audience feel more involved and immersed in the show.
When we think about the Titanic, everybody thinks about the passengers of Titanic, but it is rare that we think about the effects on other people, and this show forces us to do this, in a brilliant way. This show is a phenomenal representation of how the Titanic sinking affected the people who weren’t on the ship, but had loved ones who were.