[NEohioPAL] Community critic review of "The Last Lifeboat" at Geauga Theatre

[Bob Abelman via NEohioPAL]

Geauga Theater’s ‘The Last Lifeboat’ rewrites history while it entertains



Tommy Carosielli

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal,

Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier



It’s been suggested that history is written by the victors.

Not according to playwright Luke Yankee’s “The Last Lifeboat,” which casts light on the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 14 and 15, 1912 that is not commonly shone.

According to Yankee or, rather, Francis Wilson’s 2011 book “The Sinking of J. Bruce Ismay” on which his play is based, the history of the high-profile accident that took 1,503 lives was written by the American press.  Newspaper owners and editors wanted to sell papers and identifying a viable scapegoat would do just that.

Ismay was an upper-crust Englishman who went to the best schools, married the right society girl though he was in love with someone else, and inherited the prominent British White Star Line shipping company that owned the Titanic.  He was the perfect target.

Newspaper reports suggested that at 1.45am, an hour and a half after the Titanic hit the iceberg, the coward Ismay – dressed as a woman – sneaked aboard the very last lifeboat to leave on the starboard side.  As half-filled lifeboats floated away, their passengers listened to the screams and groans of the dying but Ismay refused to turn and look at the sinking ship. 

In 2014, the truth according to Yankee received its world premiered at the University of California-Irvine, where audiences experienced the innermost thoughts of a sympathetic Ismay at various stages of his life and learned that he saved as many people as he could before stepping into that lifeboat with no more women and children in sight.

“The Last Lifeboat” is currently on stage the Geauga Theater and, as directed by Michael J. Rogan, is captivating.

For more of this review, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/theater/. 
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