The Last Ship is a stirring, muscular and deeply moving
musical that tells the story of the closing of a shipyard in Wallsend,
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in north-east England. Two thousand workers were about to
be thrown out of work. Shipbuilding had been done in the area and become a part
of the fabric of the community for generations.
In fact shipbuilding had been going on in that
part of England for some 700 years but by the late 20th century it
had become unprofitable and shipyards began closing. The unionized workers of
Wallsend took matters in their own hands, occupied the shipyard and decided to
finish the last ship on which they were working by themselves.
Sting and the cast of THE LAST SHIP – Toronto Production
2019.
Photo credit: Cylla von Tiedemann.
British musician Sting, who comes from that
area, has written the music and lyrics with a new book by Lorne Campbell. Sting
also plays the part of Jackie White, the union
foreman.
The workers’ takeover of the shipyard is told
along with the personal story of Gideon Fletcher (Oliver Savile) and Meg Dawson
(Frances McNamee). The two are young lovers but Fletcher leaves her and joins
the navy. Seventeen years later he returns to find out that he has a
sixteen-year old daughter, Ellen (Sophie Reid) that he was never told about.
There are vignettes of some of the people in
the story but we get a closer look at Jackie White (Sting), the union foreman
who shows leadership, courage and tenacity despite being mortally ill. Sting’s
music and lyrics are muscular, defiant and at times melodic.
The workers are told that the shipyard will
close just as they are finishing the construction of a ship for which the order
has been cancelled. Five hundred of the 2000 will be given jobs dismantling the
ship for scrap. Freddy Newlands (Sean Kearns) the owner with a Thatcheresque
Baroness Tynedale (Annie Grace) inform and later threaten the workers with
police action if they do not leave the ship yard.
There is some powerful choral singing. Sting
has a thrusting vocal delivery as a strong man who feels deeply about the
workers and the injustice of closing the shipyard. Frances McNamee displays
some fine vocal flourishes as the abandoned woman who has fight bigotry and
raise her out-of-wedlock daughter. Savile has to work hard and sing well to
convince her to take him back.
Frances McNamee and Oliver Savile in THE LAST SHIP – Toronto
Production 2019.
Photo credit: Cylla von Tiedemann.
The set (by 59 Productions), sound design (Seb
Frost) and Lighting Design (Matt Daw) are quite brilliant. There is generous
use of projections to give the impression of the hull of a ship, a pub or an
interior scene. The sky and the atmosphere in general are dark, threatening and
gloomy. The projections show kaleidoscopic effects from a fire to welding
sparks, to the demonstrators who take over the shipyard, to the finished ship
about to sail down the river. All are highly effective.
The Last Ship is about the tragic effect that social change
brings. The workers fight to keep an industry that is no longer viable. Sting
has great sympathy for them and so do we. It has special resonance for southern
Ontario where General Motors announced the closing of a plant in Oshawa. Sting
took the play to the workers as a gesture of support for their plight.
I won’t tell you the ending if you don’t know
it but in the end you will get a marvellous musical and you can think about the
workers in the musical and in Oshawa after you leave the theatre.
__________
The Last Ship by Sting (music and
Lyrics0, Lorne Campbell (Director and New Book), John Logan and Brian Yorkey
(original book) continues until March 24, 2019 at the Princess of Wales Theatre, 300 King St. West, Toronto , Ontario . www.mirvish.com/ 416 872 1212 or 1 800 461 3333
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