Home
Latest News
Biography
Photo Gallery
Interviews
Articles & Reviews
Theatre Credits
TV & Films
Discography
Forum
Multimedia
Updates
Contact

Theatre
Opéra Royal de Wallonie
Location
Liege, Belgium
Genre
Musical
Date
16 - 31 December 2005
Created by
Maury Yeston
Book by
Peter Stone
French adaptation
Jean-Louis Grinda and Stéphane Laporte
Director
Jean-Louis Grinda and Claire Servais
Musical direction
Bruno Membrey
Set
Eric Chevalier
Costumes
Michel Fresnay
Choreography
Barry Collins
Lighting
Jacques Chatelet
Performers
Jérôme Pradon, André Jobin, Antoine Normand, Patrick Vilet, Jean-Marie Vervynck, Didier Clusel, Philippe Ermelier, Vincent Heden, Nathalie Paque, Fabian Richard, Angélique Rivoux, Edouard Thiebaut, Jacques Duparc, Patrick Delcour, Fabrice Todaro, Jean-François Lapointe.
Synopsis
From L'opera de Royal site:

In the first hours of April 15, 1912, one of the largest steamers yet built, foundered at sea south of Newfoundland, on the fifth day of her maiden trip. Constructed to be unsinkable, she carried enough lifeboats for only half the passengers, and over fifteen hundred of them perished in the glacial waters whilst only some seven hundred could be saved.
The biggest maritime catastrophe of all times very soon achieved symbol value. Symbol of man's innate aspiration at omnipotence and his overconfident defiance of nature. Symbol of unbridled capitalistic enterprise. Symbol, too, of the sacrifice of social classes to the benefit of others, as the ship was divided in three categories which were not given quite the same chances.
To Stone and Yeston, the authors of the musical, the shipwreck of the Titanic marks the end of the 19th century, its social stratification and its code of honour. Their play has no hero, the omnipresent central character being the ship. She carries along a teeming manifold lot, with their carelessness, their longings and desires, their stringency and wealth.
The sobre, respectful score follows step by step the four exceptional days that precede the tragedy, and the brutal overturn it provokes, crucially revealing the quintessence of human relations.
Sustained by a numerous cast and impressive settings, the Liège production of 2000 by Jean-Louis Grinda and Claire Servais illustrates the coexistence of ostensibly diverging individual trajectories.