Boiler Room Six ⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Witness the impossible true survival story of Titanic stoker Frederick Barrett. Working in the boiler rooms of the maiden voyage, Barrett’s fight for survival is one of the most devastating accounts of the Titanic’s last few hours. Boiler Room Six gives a voice to the sacrifice of the working men below deck who kept the ship afloat for as long as possible, saving hundreds of lives, whilst knowingly giving up on their own.”
Most people know the story of the Titanic. We know the iceberg. We know the sinking. We know the lifeboats. We know the tragic final hours. But Boiler Room Six takes us somewhere we don’t usually go: down into the heat, smoke and constant labour of the men below deck. And it is there that this one-person play becomes especially powerful.
Direction is remarkably clever and makes excellent use of the space. This production relies heavily on clear direction because the audience has to understand where we are, what is happening, and how the physical environment is changing without a large set to explain it. Thankfully, it is all exceptionally clear.
The set consists of just two black benches. That’s it. And yet those two benches become the boiler room, machinery, the ship and whatever else the story requires them to be. It is a perfect example of theatrical minimalism: the production doesn’t need to build Titanic around us because it gives us enough information to build it ourselves.
LX by Natalia Izquierdo is essential to the production and works beautifully. The lighting does much of the storytelling, establishing the location and helping us understand the changing environment of the boiler room. The flickering effects that mimic the flames are a particularly lovely touch, and the use of colour creates a genuine sense of heat and danger. There are moments where the red light doesn’t simply illuminate the stage; it makes you feel as though you are standing inside the furnace yourself.
Sound is similarly effective. The soundscapes immerse us in this world without ever distracting from the story. Machinery, steam, and the tireless atmosphere of the boiler room surround the performance, producing a sense that an enormous ship exists beyond the very small space we are watching. It is one of those sound designs you notice most when you imagine the production without it, and without it, a huge amount of the atmosphere would disappear.
Tom Foreman's book demonstrates enormous affection for Frederick Barrett and his story. The script has clearly been handled with considerable care, and the emotional bond between the audience and Barrett is one of its greatest strengths. Rather than simply giving us a history lesson, Foreman allows us to understand the man behind the historical account. The result is intensely human. It is especially effective because the script gradually reveals the scale of what Barrett and the other men below deck were doing. These weren’t simply background figures in the Titanic story. Their work kept the ship’s systems running and gave passengers more time. The production gives those men a voice.
Performance by Charlie Sheepshanks is excellent. He carries the entire production himself and creates not just Barrett but the wider world around him. The physicality is particularly impressive, and the boiler room becomes something we can almost feel through his performance. The performance has a roughness that makes the story incredibly immediate. Sheepshanks has to create a huge number of characters and relationships while keeping Barrett at the centre, and he does so with notable clarity. He is the only performer on stage, but the boiler room never feels empty.
Boiler Room Six signals that the Titanic story doesn’t belong solely to the people we usually see in films and photographs. There were hundreds of working men beneath the decks, shovelling coal, maintaining machinery and keeping the ship functioning while knowing that their own chances of survival were diminishing. It is beautifully simple theatre, but simple does not mean small. The two benches, one performer, lighting and sound create a world that feels enormous.
Boiler Room Six plays at Pleasance Queen Dome from 5–31 August at 11:00 am and has a run time of approximately 55 minutes
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