a better boy
Written By: John Wilson Foster
Directed By: Paula McFetridge
Production Premiere: 9th April 2012
Produced to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Titanic, A Better Boy was performed on the MV Confiance barge, docked at Lanyon Quay, Belfast.
It is 1917, William J. Pirrie, chairman of Harland & Wolff, has agreed to an interview remembering his nephew Tommie – Thomas Andrews, chief designer of RMS Titanic, a ship whose name Pirrie is loath to speak. He recalls Tommie’s boyhood, and 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 his memories and musings emerges the compelling and neglected figure of Pirrie himself: the world’s greatest shipbuilder.
A unique play for the 2012 celebrations staged in an atmospheric, historical venue.
Watch a promotional video for the show here.
CREATIVE TEAM
Lalor Roddy as William J. Pirrie
Writer: John Wilson Foster
Director: Paula McFetridge
Designer: Stuart Marshall
Stage Manager: Jacqueline O’Hagan
Funded by