Review: The Queen of the Ocean, Savoy Theatre

UNRATED

I must start immediately by saying I was asked to review The Queen of the Ocean as a theatrical immersive dining experience, but it quickly became apparent that this was not going to be possible. This is a themed dining experience: the theatrical performance is at best questionable and any form of audience interaction entirely minimal. As for the dining – well it’s The Savoy! The rack rate for the ticket is £250 per person: it’s got to be great, hasn’t it? Hasn’t it?

My partner and I arrived to a queue of beautifully dressed ‘first class passengers’ taking their tables in ‘the Titanic’s dining hall’. Many had period costumes, dripping in pearls and beads. There was a fabulous sense of anticipation and excitement as we were led to our tables. Sadly, we were raised up to drop from a great height.

The Savoy itself is an exquisite, flawless venue. At the front of the room two enormous screens showed computer generated images of the doomed boat, and gave regular updates on our voyage via captions. Unfortunately, when we turned to our plates it was impossible to read these, so it required committed attention to follow the narrative. Costumed characters including the Captain and a series of maids performed vignettes that were difficult to follow because although mic’d up their voices didn’t project adequately in the busy restaurant, so no sense of the human loss in the disaster was achieved. There was very little engagement with the audience. At one point we stood to sing a hymn, but four entire verses, which was way too long. One character came over very briefly to speak with us but it really didn’t add up to an immersive encounter.

The projections were not evocative of either the glory of the ship or of the disaster, being more like an estate agent’s 360 degree tour, and added little to our understanding of the narrative.

A pianist played an original soundtrack to the show, but on an electric piano: hardly the evocative string orchestra associated with the tragedy. In the background, a wearing, constant rumbling sound represented the engines, which one lady I spoke to said aggravated her tinnitus, forcing her to leave.

The staging alongside eating was poorly timed. It would have been better to grasp moments between courses using different lighting states, perhaps, to focus on the story, which was otherwise lost. I stopped trying in the end. There was no sense of how the timeline was supposed to match our experience as first class passengers. Seated on a rear table next to the kitchen, the performance delivery was outweighed by the noise of the kitchen and undermined by the desire of customers to engage socially with each other.

There was absolutely no sense of peril, or interaction that provided theatre. Even as the ship ‘sank’ there was no suggestion of panic. At our table, we imagined numerous alternative ways interaction could be improved: delivering the news from the captions as ticker tape to the table, or doing a draw to see which of us would be allotted a place in the lifeboat etc. But all we really did was eat. To be fair, around the room there were small yet exquisitely disappointing installations to visit, giving information about the disaster. These included a catering tray full of ice water to imitate the temperature of the ocean on the night, and a cake stand – yes, a cake stand – covered in figures representing the percentages of dead and survivors. This seemed to include a portrayal of a child hanging on to a drowning body.

The food itself was nothing more than four courses of bland. It was like attending a wedding with a massacre occurring in the background. There was no hint of a link with the actual menu from the Titanic on the table; certainly no printed reproduction of it, so it was impossible to guess that was what we were eating. The service was sloppy, with our waiters pouring wine either when not required or actually over one guest. The drinks system was not explained, so we had to seek out help and were then charged a service fee for bringing a bottle to the table.

The evening dragged on for three and a half hours, culminating with coffee over the cries of drowning children alongside an announcement for a meet and greet, which felt deeply disrespectful to the dead and their families. There was then no real marked conclusion before an oddly timed cheeseboard was brought out. People just wandered away into the night.

Given its enormous potential for both glamour and for historical regard, this was an immensely disappointing event, and I can only feel for those who paid full price, or had been given tickets as gifts and would have to face their families after. At one point in the evening a customer had a stand up row with staff behind us, declaring the event “appalling”. Other attendees I spoke to described it as “shocking” and as reflecting atrociously on The Savoy. The word “am-dram” was also used.

I felt ashamed to be a part of it and am deeply concerned that Histoire Productions’ next piece is based on Chernobyl.

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The Queen of the Ocean played at Savoy Theatre and is now on tour . Further information and bookings can be found here.