The Last Ship is a highly romanticised story based on Sting's own childhood experiences growing up near the Swan Hunter Shipyard in Tyne And Wear, which centres around the closure of the docks, and the uncertainty of life at the end of a ship-building era in not just that area but the UK as a whole during the "reign" of Margaret Thatcher.
Specifically it tells the story of a teenager, who, being expected to follow in his father's footsteps and work at the ship-building yard, but having no inclination to do so, instead joins the navy and sets off to sea, despite leaving behind his 15 year old sweetheart. He promises to return to her. It is another 17 years though before he does finally return, and he comes home to find things not at all as he had hoped or expected. His father dead, the shipyard under the threat of closure, strikes, and his love, who at 15 had the intelligence and wherewithal to go to university and 'make good', is now a landlady at the local pub, unmarried, and with a 16 year old daughter in tow- his daughter, of whom he knew nothing.
It tells also of these dock workers and their struggle to keep their jobs despite the threats of closure, and shows the fighting spirit of these men, who, after losing all they have, and with nothing else to lose, defy the authorities, go back to work and finish building the last ship in the dock and set it sail!
The music and lyrics are by Sting, and they are fabulous. They are lyrical and memorable with a great balance between raucous chorus numbers and plaintive ballads. Just pop enough to make the music contemporary with that distinctive style of Sting's more famous hits, and an overall folk-infused Musical Theatre score of great tunes and even greater harmonies.
My only real negative criticism of the show's story and music is that the whole is somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes too long. I have to admit that I was not for one second bored, but some judicious cutting would nevertheless have made the whole slicker and more compact.
The set, designed by 59 Productions, was arguably perhaps the star of the show. Using computer graphics and images onto screens and cyc, the dockyard, cranes, houses, the ship, the sea and indeed everything and anything else required was cleverly and realistically projected, and the set itself was so designed as to be multi-purpose, practical and pertinent. I was a little uncertain though about the on-stage band. The lights at the piano, and this instrument being constantly in view was a little distracting.
These graphics though were, at times, in danger of upstaging the action, and this was their failing. Especially at the very end. we were watching a film and not a stage musical. In fact I was rather hoping that at the end, the high walls at the rear of the stage would have parted and the proud bow of The Utopia had sailed forward protruding into the auditorium. That would, for me at least, had made a greater THEATRICAL impact than watching a 3D CGI "film"!
There were also two other things which puzzled me this evening. The first being the performers' relationship with the audience. At the beginning of both acts we were 'treated' to something akin to pantomime or stand-up comedy warm-up material whereby the cast spoke directly to the audience inviting us to clap and cheer along with them and chatting to us in very familiar tones.. Then suddenly the invisible fourth wall descended and we watched the musical unfold. Except there was one other place where one protagonist did break this fourth wall again, albeit momentarily, and spoke directly to us before snapping back into 'theatre mode'. I found this both odd and disconcerting.
The second issue is down to casting. This evening there were 4 cast changes [which on a Press Night is an absolute first for me!], but that in itself still does not solve my problem. I still cannot understand why the two protagonists of Gordon and Meg when being shown as their teenage selves both had blonde hair, and in the present time (of the Musical) they were both shown to have dark brown hair. Their younger selves were also in the present day part of the musical as ensemble characters too which made it even more confusing. It took effort to try and distinguish when and which was which.
The casting was nonetheless solid and their portrayals excellently handled. Indeed it was not too far stretch of the imagination to see Sting himself in the role of Jackie White. (This evening played by Joe McGann)
Richard Fleeshman (a delightful and natural actor) played our hero and protagonist Gideon Fletcher with a certain understated earnestness. Frances McNameee as Meg, gave an enigmatically powerful performance; whilst their daughter Ellen, played this evening by Parisa Shahmir was sensitively handled and completely believable. But why was she also a sometime narrator too?
Jackie White's wife, the driving force of the play in many respects, was this evening given an empathetic, loveable and relatable demeanour by Penelope Woodman.
The Last Ship is a damned good production, hugely enjoyable, but sadly the whole is tarnished a little by minutiae which, with a little more thought could easily have been rectified.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 3/7/18
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