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The Last Ship

UK Tour + Toronto

2018-19

Steel in the stockyard, iron in the soul, we’ll conjure up a ship where there used to be a hole

Sting’s musical, The Last Ship, returned to its home town of Newcastle for it’s opening in March 2018. Re-written and re-designed for its UK premier, the show was brought to life by the set and video designs of 59.

Set during the Thatcher years, this political and passionate musical told the story of Giddeon, a sailor returning home to Wallsend after 17 years away. He soon discovers the ship-building life he left behind in chaos, the yard is closing and no one knows what will come next. With the engine fired and pistons in motion, picket lines are drawn as foreman Jackie White and his wife Peggy fight to hold their community together in the face of the gathering storm.

The Last Ship opened at Northern Stage on the 12th March 2018 and then went on tour throughout the UK.

Opened 2018-19

Northern Stage - Newcastle + UK Tour + Princess of Wales - Toronto

Selected Reviews

★★★★★
59 Productions’ design is stunning, rendering the shipyard in all its terrible beauty
The set and design by 59 Productions is magnificent. With the use of screens and projections, the world around us changes in a blink of an eye in the most beautiful and cinematic way
★★★★
The technical skill of the designers is truly amazing
It also looks exceptionally handsome: the design, by 59 Productions, uses black and white projections to capture the gaunt grandeur of the shipyard girders against scudding clouds
★★★★
59 Productions’ designs are superlative, they intensify the drama and make us believe even when the action is less involving
Lorne Campbell, the artistic director of Northern Stage, has reworked the book for this new production, ditching some extraneous characters and subplots, and foregrounding only a couple of personal stories against the mighty backdrop of the shipyard, which is recreated in all its awesome height and depth by 59 Productions

Credits

Music & Lyrics by
Sting

Writer & Director
Lorne Campbell

Producer
Karl Sydow

Northern Stage
Matt Runham

PW Productions
Iain Gillie

Movement Director
Lucy Hind

Musical Director
Richard John

Set & Video Design
59 Productions

Costume Designer
Molly Einchcomb

Lighting Designer
Matt Daw

Sound Designer
Seb Frost

59 Team

Design Director
Leo Warner

Set Designer
Jenny Melville

Video Designer
Nicol Scott

Producer
Rebecca Collis

Assistant Designer
Matthew Taylor

Animators
Jarek Radecki, David Curtis

Assistant Set Designer
Khushali Chawda

Video Programmer
Ben Pearcy

Video System Designer
Max Spielbichler