Rob Brock and his puppet characters from "RMS Titanic Remembered," at the Hole in the Wall Puppet Theatre.
Rob Brock was just 4 in 1962, when he first heard about the Titanic. His sister taught him a song she'd learned at camp:
Oh, they built the ship Titanic to sail the ocean blue,
And they thought they had a ship that the water wouldn't go through,
But the good lord raised his hand, said "The ship would never land."
It was sad when the great ship went down, down, down.
Brock will be singing that song and telling the stories of some of the passengers who survived when he presents "RMS Titanic Remembered" at the Hole in the Wall Puppet Theatre Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
It is a reprise of a show he first wrote and produced in 1998 and is now performing to honor the 100th anniversary of the tragedy.
"There are ten rod puppets in the show," Brock says. "They are all based on real people and almost all the dialogue is in their words."
Eva Hart, who was just 7, and Frank Prentice, an assistant to the purser who was in his 20s, will take us back 100 years, serving as narrators for the story.
It was late on the night of Sunday, April 14, 1912 when the mighty ship, deemed unsinkable by its makers, hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic.
It took several hours for the Titanic to sink from late Sunday night into Monday morning, taking 1,514 souls with it and leaving 710 survivors.
In addition to telling the survivor stories, Brock will chat with the audience about how he came to know the story of the Titanic.
In addition to the famous camp song, Brock remembers seeing the movies "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" and "A Night to Remember" on TV when he was a child. Those two films left an impression.
And Brock has long collected survivor stories. Why is it so fascinating?
"I think it's the tragedy of it, that it was built to be unsinkable and it sank on its maiden voyage," he says. "And the gallantry of the Edwardian Era. It was the end of a golden age."
The characters talk about the rescue, remembering the sound of terrified people jumping into the Atlantic, many to certain death.
"You lasted about 20 minutes in that icy water," Brock says. "It was 28 degrees.
Brock says the show is about 50 minutes long and not for young children.
"We don't like to put an age limit on our shows, but I'd say this is for older kids," he says.
The characters were all real people.
"You aren't going to see Leonardo DiCaprio proclaiming himself King of the World," Brock says. "Just their words alone really bring it back. You don't need all these fancy models and recreations."
The characters include Lawrence Beesley, a teacher who was on holiday and Col. Archibald Gracie, who was returning home to New York. Both men would write books about their experiences.
Molly Brown -- actually called Margaret Brown before they changed it for the musical about her life -- became well known for surviving. Brock notes with a chuckle that she changes costume five times.
There's Charles Herbert Lighttoller, the second mate and the most senior officer to survive. And Harold Bride, the assistant Marconi operator on the ship, who relayed messages seeking help.
"After this disaster, all ships were required to have Marconi radios and they had to be on 24 hours a day," Brock says, adding that new laws came about for lifeboats as well.
It is important for Brock to be respectful and to remember that as fascinating as the events of April 14 and 15 were, they resulted in great tragedy.
"It's tricky," he says. "I find it's important to stick with the survivors' words and how they told their stories. I want to recreate that era, to be faithful to them."
"RMS Titanic Remembered"
Fri. and Sat. 7:30 p.m.
Sun. 2 p.m. $15
Hole in the Wall Puppet Theatre
126 N. Water St., 394-8398
