This was a little gem of a play that I shot for the Lyric Theatre in Belfast to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.
Rosemary Jenkinson’s White Star of the North ...
"Playing the lead role of a young Ulsterman with dreams of fighting for King and country is Andrew Simpson who rose to prominence in the 2006 film Notes on a Scandal alongside Cate Blanchett and Dame Judi Dench.
White Star of the North begins in a lower middle class house in Belfast where the Protestant Massey family, father, son and daughter, are torn apart by fears of Home Rule in Ireland and religious discrimination.
Against this troubled backdrop, two of the Massey family set out to start new lives in America, the land of civil and religious freedom, and of infinite opportunity. The ship they sail upon is the Titanic. On that fateful night, Crawford Massey acts in a way that will impact on the rest of his life.
White Star of the North looks at the political tensions that drove us to emigration and blows apart the myth of heroism on the Titanic. In a strait-laced society that cares more for appearances and allegiances and laws than it does for the truth, survival becomes everything."
