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Reliving the Day the Unsinkable Sank

By MICHAEL SOMMERS

Published: April 6, 2012

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AS the Titanic sailed toward its destiny on a Sunday afternoon a century ago this month, passengers in first class listened to the band play fox trots and waltzes as they lunched on egg à l'Argenteuil, prepared with asparagus.

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Tim Ireland/Press Association, via Associated Press

LAST DINNER A menu given to the Titanic's first-class passengers on April 14, 1912, the day before the ship went down.

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Some of their experiences during the tragic night that followed, the ragtime tunes they heard and even much of the final luncheon menu will be re-created when "100 Years: Titanic Survivors and Their Stories" is staged on April 15, the anniversary of the disaster, at the Arts and Community Center on the campus of Ocean County College in Toms River.

Maggie Worsdale, 52, of Jackson worked for nearly two years on the script about the doomed voyage, in which about 1,500 people perished when the ship struck an iceberg and sank. She used accounts taken from period journals, official inquiries and survivors' memoirs. "I wanted to authentically capture the details," she said.

Ms. Worsdale said she found the "what-ifs" of the disaster compelling. "What if the lookouts had binoculars and saw the iceberg a minute sooner?" she asked. "What if the ship were going slower? What if there had been enough lifeboats for everyone?"

She is the producer of this 90-minute documentary play, in which she also acts, along with her husband, Thomas Worsdale, and James Dyne. The trio performs as the Traveling Literary Theater , founded in 2005, which brings character-driven shows like "Mark Twain's Wonderful Words" to libraries and community centers.

For the Titanic production, the actors, dressed in 1912 fashions, will read aloud the recollections of more than 35 survivors and others, like the captain of the rescue ship, that trace the fatal voyage and its aftermath. A tuxedo-clad, six-piece ensemble led by Dan Levinson, a jazz clarinetist, will play vintage arrangements of hit songs like "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and light classical selections from the era.

Before the performance, 75 people can sample a buffet drawn from the Titanic's last lunch, which is described as an "old school, high-end menu" by William Muller, president of My Restaurant Group, which will cater the meal in the Gallery space upstairs from the 428-seat theater. Conflicting accounts regarding the last song played aboard the Titanic have been finessed by Mr. Levinson, who plans to conclude the program by mingling "Songe d'Automne," a surging waltz of the day, with "Nearer My God to Thee," the hymn that it partly echoes. "We will play them slowly and plaintively, and I think it will be effective," he said.

"It brings tears to my eyes to think how the Titanic's musicians went beyond the call of duty that night," Mr. Levinson said. "They were hired as passengers, not crew, so they were under no contractual obligation to stay. But they chose to remain and keep everyone calm with their music until the end."

"100 Years: Titanic Survivors and Their Stories" will be presented on April 15 at 2 p.m. at Ocean County College in Toms River, preceded by lunch at 11:30 a.m. Tickets: $30 (show), $70 (lunch). (732) 255-0500 or ocean.universitytickets.com.

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