Hooray and up she rises

If James Cameron's film impressed with its reconstruction of the sinking of the Titanic, Germany's Theater Titanick go a step further - they build the ship in front of you first. In just 70 minutes, the legendary liner is built, launched and sunk in 30,000 litres of water - and all without the use of special effects.

"Titanic" is a mixture of live music, experimental performance, satire and absurd comedy. It is a gigantic spectacle with fireworks, flames and an awful lot of water - impressive both on account of its remarkable scale and its uncompromisingly chaotic structure.

The company, made up of actors from the western city of Muenster and musicians from Leipzig in the east, has been sinking the Titanic since 1990. The spectacle has been staged all over the world, from Sydney to Belgrade, and it formed part of Germany's cultural contribution to Expo 98 in Lisbon.

It gets off to a melancholy start as the low drone of a foghorn mingles with the clinking of hammers on metal. Nine long, iron bars are splayed on the ground like fishbones, along with a funnel, a bath, some luggage and scaffolding.

The sense of foreboding is reinforced when a grotesque figure hobbles on, supported by a battered crutch as he pushes a wheelbarrow piled with burning coals. He sets alight a succession of braziers and the hammering becomes more frantic as he is joined by a group of equally grotesque, clown-like figures. They hoist a few ropes and within seconds, the great, unsinkable, luxury liner rises up, complete with crow's nest, bridge, furnace and first class deck.

First class passengers aboard the Titanic have seldom received a good press but they have never been portrayed so harshly as in this production. Heartless, licentious gluttons, they seem almost to deserve their fate as the ship goes down. Indeed, as the wretched, deformed lower ranks toil below, the high jinks above deck appear to be crying out for reparation.

There is nothing subtle about this Titanic and the plot is so slight as to be almost invisible. This is partly because the ship has only been at sea for a few minutes before it hits the iceberg and the first leaks appear. While the passengers spray one another with champagne and gorge on roast sucking pig, it is only the poor, crippled crew that attempts to stem the flood of sea water. Unfortunately, none of the figures on board has a chance to become a character before the ship meets its doom, making it difficult for the audience to identify with them.

But plot is not the point of a spectacle such as this, in which only a handful of words are spoken. Much of the glory of Titanic is in the athletic, almost acrobatic performances by the actors and the hectic, improvised music performed by an extraordinary ensemble of french horn, didgeridoo, bass guitar, drums and synthesiser.

But the real stars of the evening are the flames that swallow much of the ship in a splendid inferno and the vast amount of water that gushes, flows, sprays and floods over the ship. By the end of the performance, the entire cast is soaked through as they are hosed aboard lifeboats or sink beneath the waves.

Spectators in the front rows are well advised to bring an umbrella and waterproofs but the most comfortable vantage point is probably above the action. From there you have a perfect view of this magnificent orgy of destruction that seems, in the end, both poignant and cathartic.

Titanic runs from Friday 17th to Sunday 19th July at the Cathedral Car Park at 10.15 p.m.