Hell Ship.
Written and performed by Michael Veitch . Co-writer and director Peter Houghton. Chester Creative. The Q Theatre. Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. Friday February 21.
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
Many tales are told of the countless shipwrecks that occurred
along the southern coastline of the continent and of the hundreds of lives lost
at sea while searching for a better life in the new colonies. However, few
would have known the story of the fateful Triconderoga, a sturdy emigrant clipper that brought Highland
emigrants across the seas to Australia in 1852.
What makes Michael Veitch’s one man show Hell Ship such an
engaging, moving and powerful account of the journey is the personal resonance
of his performance. On board the vessel was the ship’s young doctor, James
William Henry Veitch, Michael’s great great grandfather, who, with the
assistance of a Scottish nurse, Annie Morrison, desperately worked tirelessly
and with scant regard for their own welfare to treat the outbreak of typhus,
when it was discovered after passing the equator that one of the patients had
the condition. What unfolds is a story of courage, compassion and the struggle
to survive, as Veitch fills the stage with the drama of his forbear’s life.
A simple set on the Q Theatre stage captures the era and
bleakness of Veitch’s tale. A young patient lies in a fever on a bed. He is
being treated by a doctor, who is drawn into the drama of the voyage as typhus
grips the travellers. On a crowded ship of 800 emigrants, the plague quickly
spreads and by the time the Triconderoga limps into Port Phillip Bay, one
hundred poor souls have been unceremoniously buried at sea. In the centre of
the stage is a chair where James Veitch recounts the horrific experience as a
surgeon’s mate and at the other side a large sailcloth projects images of the
ocean as thunderclaps burst forth. We are instantly transported to a bygone era and
the tragic decline of a mighty vessel and its human cargo.
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| Michael Veitch as James William Henry Veitch |
Veitch is a fine actor, deftly changing role with voice and
gesture while exuding a pacifying calm throughout the deadly drama. His pace is
assured and measured with deliberately sensitive tempo. His affinity with the story is plausible and
heartfelt. What is less apparent is a surge of the shifting emotions. The
performance appears deliberately low key, though not without impact. Perhaps
his book would allow a greater sense of the building saga of what must have
been a desperate plight. Maybe the drama would lend itself more effectively as
a radio play, allowing the imagination to picture and conjure the on board
horror. Alternatively, the largely forgotten tale warrants a full length production, allowing individual
stories to be developed and the romance between James and Annie to be
developed until their eventual marriage.
This is of course speculation and appreciative audience members gathered
at the close of the performance to purchase Veitch’s book for a fuller account of the events upon
the ill-fated clipper. Tonight’s performance was a theatrical teaser, adeptly
performed by a fine actor and storyteller and an important acknowledgement of
the suffering and heroism that so often took place upon the high seas during
our nation’s nineteenth century maritime history.
