The good news is that Colin Hamel’s
performance as JIMMY TITANIC (at New Repertory Theatre through June 30th)
is a tour de force. Hamel and New Rep have ganged up before, most notably when
Hamel stormed the stage as the incomparable, formidable, lethal lieutenant in (one
of my favorite productions ever) THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE.
In the Tir Na company’s production of JIMMY
TITANIC at New Rep, Hamel plays Jimmy Boyle, who helped build the Titanic in
the Belfast Shipyards, then signed on to stoke the giant furnace and see the
world. Bernard McMullan’s one man show (with endless characters) is a memory
play of sorts set in the afterlife. It’s not your grandmother’s idea of heaven.
The angel Gabriel fancies dirty tricks and the occasional shakedown while God
fumes and sometimes behaves badly for “sport.”
McMullan’s construct has Jimmy learning his
way around “paradise,” having become a bit of a celebrity by dint of his
demise. A hundred years, and we’re still hungry for Titanic tidbits. Likewise,
in heaven: The more spectacular your death, the more street (or should I say
“cloud”) cred.
Within the play’s heavenly frame, Jimmy can
remember his life and his death. He can impart his recurring “sinking”
nightmares. He can give us tips about survival in the great beyond. He can meet
(dead) people from all walks of life and any era. But the play doesn’t make
sense when it leaves Jimmy’s world and exits the frame to take us to a newsroom
or a Senate hearing. Without Jimmy in the scene(s), they seem out of place and
they undercut Jimmy’s story. Mind you, with Carmel O’Reilly directing and Hamel acting up
a storm, they almost make it work.
McMullan’s lovely closing (about the ship
being the love of Jimmy’s life) clued me in to the Belfast theme, which is a grand, “through
line” idea—but one which wasn’t
there enough for me to trip to it, until Jimmy’s last words. Then the Belfast scenes all
replayed in a flash, in my head. Maybe that’s the way Tir Na and McMullan want
it to work.
It way be a bit long for a one-man show, but
JIMMY TITANIC has many stirring (and lots of funny) moments. It made me
remember Robert Shaw’s exquisite, harrowing monologue from JAWS, recounting the
sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis in WWII. Not bad company to be in.
