One of two productions from Tom Foreman and starring Max Beken arriving at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe is Boiler Room Six: A Titanic Story (the other, the magnificent Out of Woodstock). The piece tackles a little known bout of heroism upon the ill-fated passenger liner, drawing on the true story of the ship’s stoker Frederick Barrett.
Boiler Room Six tells Barrett, a Titanic survivor’s story, capturing the inner workings of the hub of the ship and the men who aimed to keep the unsinkable beast afloat as tragedy struck.
Fascination with the RMS Titanic has endured over one hundred years since the disaster occurred, therefore there is no shortage of films, series, stage adaptations, and texts written about the sunken passenger liner. Yet writer and director Foreman finds fresh ground in the story of Barrett, delivering this with a razor-sharp tension and a heartfelt emotive core, all whilst transporting us to majestic ship and its inner workings in the midst of the Atlantic.
Foreman captures the atmosphere of the scintillatingly hot boiler room through effective use of lighting and sound design, creating a claustrophobic kiln at the heart of the ship – separated from the splendour and opulence of the upper decks. This is home to the working class heroes, many of whom kept lights and electrics running, even as water begins to burn out the simmering coals. Foreman tells their tale through Barrett’s story – dutiful grafters, dreaming of the new potential of New York, sadly cut short.
As events grow increasingly tense and our own macabre knowledge of the disaster comes into play, Foreman intelligently instils a sense of optimism into events. As the damage begins to take hold of the ship, the perseverance of the stokers and Barrett presents an infectious hopefulness, and a small lingering question of ‘What if they could turn it around?’ Yet history is written on the wall in Boiler Room Six and as tragedy takes hold Foreman manages to find moments of beauty and calm in the tense frenetic energy of the boiler room. The production is impressive in its ability to make the inner technical industry of the ship accessible, successfully using each change in the ship’s condition as a stepping stone to the brooding disaster amping up the tension.
In the later stages, a contrast between the eerie calm and sadness of the upper deck as the ship sinks, is compared to Barrett’s haven of the boiler rooms in the lower decks. Effective use of music comes into play here as serene violins play amongst the unfolding tragedy, a contrast to the water-filled boiler rooms. Interestingly Barrett does not seem to feel at home in the upper deck, playing into themes of survivor guilt that making it through the disaster would surely instil.
Beken impresses as the salt-of-the-earth hero with a heart, the character developed effectively through Foreman’s writing and the actor’s charismatic performance. Beken gives us a sense of the conflicted protagonist – a hero plagued by heartbreak, seeking escape on the high seas. Barrett is a protector taking a young ship-hand under his wing, whilst taking on a peacemaker role amongst his boozing colleagues all whilst diligently working in the furnaces of Boiler Room Six. Presenting Foreman’s lyrical script, Beken further brings it to life with impressive physical mannerisms, gesture and confident delivery retaining the demeanour of working class hero.
Boiler Room Six is a powerful exploration of untold bravery, anchored by Beken’s impressive performance and Foreman’s stirring direction and lyrical writing. It’s a stirring reminder of the humanity behind one history’s greatest tragedies, leaving a lasting impact long after the final curtain falls.
Tickets to Boiler Room Six: A Titanic Story are available here.
Photo: Tom Foreman