A Better Boy
Premiered on 9th April 2012. A Better Boy was first performed aboard the barge MV Confiance, docked at Lanyon Quay, Belfast.
Cast & Crew
Writer: John Wilson Foster
Director: Paula McFetridge
Cast: Lalor Roddy
Set Designer: Stuart Marshall
Stage Manager: Jacqueline O’Hagan
It is 1917. William J. Pirrie, chairman of Harland & Wolff, has agreed to an interview in which he will remember his nephew Tommie – Thomas Andrews, chief designer of RMS Titanic, a ship whose name Pirrie is loath to speak. He recalls Tommy’s boyhood, his beginning as an apprentice aged 16 at Harland & Wolff, the greatest shipyard in the world.
It is 1917. William J. Pirrie, chairman of Harland & Wolff, has agreed to an interview in which he will remember his nephew Tommie – Thomas Andrews, chief designer of RMS Titanic, a ship whose name Pirrie is loath to speak. He recalls Tommy’s boyhood, his beginning as an apprentice aged 16 at Harland & Wolff, the greatest shipyard in the world.
The story of Titanic is one known to all but how was the news taken in Belfast, the city that built this magnificent ship? Pirrie tells of the sinking, the feverish inquires, the impressive sermons issued from the pulpits of the western world, and of course, Tommie’s last moments aboard the stricken liner. Out of Pirrie’s memories and musings emerges the compelling and neglected figure of Pirrie himself, the world’s greatest shipbuilder.
