Titanic
This multi-part Titanic project centers on the disaster that occurred on the night of April 14–15, 1912, when the Titanic – the most modern passenger ship of its time and the largest, considered unsinkable – collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank. Of the more than 2,200 passengers on board, approximately 1,500 perished. The project’s parts offer insights into a disaster that continues to repeat itself in different ways. Titanic is both past and present.
Unsinkable
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Silence
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Textbook
It sounds
Like endless silence
Between the hum
Of the engines
Listening, waiting
Holding breath
For a moment
The one speaking
Speaks to himself
Waiting for what?
Nobody else speaks
The one speaking
Says: It’s only me
Listening, waiting
Waiting for the dawn
It sounds
Like endless silence
Between the hum
Of the engines
No voice but mine
Listening, waiting
Holding breath
It sounds
Like endless silence
Hard to starboard
Suddenly
A terrible noise
A scrape, a scratch, a crack
The beginning
Do you hear?
Rattle, tremble
The steel slashed
Then silence
This is the beginning
The beginning of the end
It’s eleven forty
Project Participants
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A Dance
"A Dance" portrays the thoughts and feelings of the participants in a musical performance on the upper deck of the Titanic on the night of April 14, 1912. It is likely that many were aware of the earlier collision with an iceberg. Key elements of the performance include expressive dance and a spoken text reflecting how the participants – at least to some extent – sensed the magnitude of the disaster and offered each other mutual support and encouragement. In the background, a female singer and other performers can be seen standing at high tables.
Buried
On the morning of June 18, 2023, the submersible Titan is launched with five people on board. Its destination is the wreck of the Titanic at a depth of 3,800 meters – a destination for tourists. After one hour and 45 minutes, communication between the Titan and the mothership ceases. A search begins immediately. A remotely operated vehicle discovers debris on the seabed not far from the Titanic wreck. The submersible has imploded; the five people are dead.
The Key
"The Key" presents a fictional tribunal examining the causes of the Titanic disaster during its maiden voyage on April 14, 1912. The play’s style draws on Brecht’s epic theatre. It addresses naive faith in technology, ignorance, arrogance, recklessness regarding technical risks, and the prioritisation of economic interests over passenger safety. The play focuses on five key causes of the disaster; the fifth concerns the key to the cabinet containing the lookouts' binoculars. That key could not be found, meaning the lookouts could only spot the iceberg with the naked eye far too late.
We build
The sinking of the Titanic is regarded as a symbol of human failure resulting from hubris – Boundless overestimation of oneself. The Titanic as a floating "Tower of Babel."
April 14, 1912, marked a profound turning point for the era's techno-optimism and faith in progress. Beyond economic interests, the primary motivation of those responsible for the disaster of the Titanic was to "make a name for themselves".