Corrina, Corrina review

There is something captivating about life at sea. For a dramatist such as Chloë Moss, whose childhood home overlooked the Seaforth container port, it offers a wealth of material. Her fascination with the leviathan ships that dominate the Mersey led her to write Corrina, Corrina, a psychological drama weaving together the seafaring legends of old and more modern accounts of fear, based in fact.

Corrina is a newly appointed deck officer, making her first voyage aboard a ship. As the play opens, she receives a pep-talk from the captain, who fancies himself as a progressive thinker but whose attitudes are still entrenched in tradition. It’s not only the captain who thinks having a woman aboard is bad luck. The Filipino crew members she is supervising seem at first to have issues with Corrina, but she is determined to bring them around.                              

Amidst the growing antagonism on board, Corrina tries to gain the respect of the crew, reluctantly taking part in their favourite pastime of karaoke, but Rafael in particular is not to be won over. Level-headed Angelo proves to be more of a calming influence as he tries to mediate between them.

Fortunately, Corrina seems to have an ally in Will, a man she recognises from naval college, and who has risen faster than she to find himself in a higher rank. But all is not as simple as it seems – their shared history conceals a dark secret. Following a confrontation between Rafael and Will, tensions begin to build, and when Will pulls a terrifying stunt on Corrina their pasts come back to haunt them.

Moss explores themes of racial and sexual power-play and exploitation, and director Holly Race Roughan expertly balances these to maintain and build the tension. A play set on board a merchant ship could easily become a classic ‘locked-room’ thriller, but Corrina, Corrina is more than that. It explores the sense that the rule of law doesn’t extend offshore, with issues such as rape and theft dealt with via a gentlemanly chat, and here lies the greatest terror of the isolation.

Laura Elsworthy plays Corrina with strength and dignity, while Mike Noble is genuinely terrifying as her nemesis Will. David Crellin’s partisan captain is all too recognisable, capturing the ineptitude of management. Perhaps the most emotionally honed performance comes from James Bradwell as Angelo, whose goodness proves to be his downfall.

Played out on Moi Tran’s impressively sculptural set and loured over by the ominous rumble of Max Perryment’s rich soundscape, Corrina, Corrina is a gripping piece of theatre that approaches its subject matter with bold, compelling realism.