APRIL 14, 1912

inspired by the true story of Harold Bride, Second Marconi Officer of the RMS Titanic

Featuring: Patrick Conner, Matthew Romantini & Lucy Rupert

Stage Management by Fiona Jones

Scenic Design by Lindsay Anne Black

Lighting Design by Michelle Ramsay

Direction & Conception by Allyson McMackon

June 9-13th

Scotiabank Dance Centre

Vancouver, BC

Magnetic North Theatre Festival

1-866-850-2787 ext. 738 www.ticketstonight.ca

www.magneticnorthfestival.ca

96 years ago...a great ship went down...

Set on an iceberg somewhere in our collective memories

APRIL 14, 1912 weaves together three viewpoints of one of the greatest tragedies in the 20th century combining eye witness textual accounts and our own inimitable physical style.

On the night the RMS Titanic went down, Marconi officers Harold Bride and Jack Phillips worked throughout the night sending everything from personal messages and ice warnings to distress calls via the wireless radio. The men worked as the water rose up to their ankles. Once they abandoned ship, Bride spent the night underneath and then on top of an upside down lifeboat. He was rescued, severely frostbitten, and played an instrumental role in the inquiries of the accident. Jack Phillips possibly succumbed to exposure on the very same raft.   The Titanic sank near Halifax with a loss of 1500 people.

Tonight, three spirits, Bride, Phillips and the Ship herself, collide once again to tell their tales. Inextricably bound, they celebrate the grandeur and dreams of the Gilded Age, their lives and losses. Their stories remind us that the quest to advance technology cannot be at the expense of human life or with disregard for Nature. APRIL 14, 1912 removes the shackles of history and explores one of the greatest tragedies of our age as a poetic memory ~ expressionistic, physically aggressive and emotionally resonant.

APRIL 14, 1912 celebrates and honours memory and asks us not to forget our folly, our courage or our belief.

" She was a beautiful sight then. Smoke and sparks were rushing out of her funnel...The Ship was turning on her nose, just like a duck that goes down for a dive" (Harold Bride, The New York Times, April 19, 1912).

Photo by R.Kelly Clipperton

This project was first produced in Association with Harbourfront Centre in September 2007 and generously supported by:

This project was previously produced at the San Francisco Fringe Festival, Exit Stage Left, as Bride's Albatross. Collaborators were: Erik Kever Ryle, Ian Walker, Fiona Jones, Isabel Noel, Glen Salley and Allyson McMackon.

"The beautiful and poignant images that sweep across the stage in collaboration with [McMackon's] excellent cast, fire the imagination and stay with us long after the curtain has rung down", Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail.