I have always been a fan of the one-man show. There seem fewer of them at the Fringe this year, with the two-hander apparently enjoying something of a resurgence. But there is something about the singularity of the form that appeals to me. One performer, complete control, nobody else required to feed the next line.
Boiler Room Six: A Titanic Story demonstrates just how powerful that control can be.
Written and directed by Tom Foreman, the play takes us into one of the most familiar disasters in history, but from a very different direction. Here we are below decks with Frederick Barrett and the men who kept Titanic alive. This is not the world of evening dress, champagne and sweeping staircases. This is dirt under the fingernails, sweat on the skin, coal dust, heat, steam and relentless physical labour.
And it sounds like it.
The grind and clank of machinery surround us. Furnaces roar; steam hisses and metal seem to groan under the strain. Natalia Izquierdo’s lighting and sound design are exceptional, the sound in particular among the best I have encountered at the Fringe this year. At times you almost feel the heat coming off the boilers.
That sensory assault matters because this is where the class system aboard Titanic becomes physical. Far above, passengers inhabit one of the most luxurious environments ever put to sea. Down here, men shovel coal into its guts to keep that luxury illuminated.
Then comes the collision, and gradually the world Sheepshanks has conjured begins to die.
The machinery falters. The light disappears. The heat gives way to darkness. One by one, the great mechanical systems that have given Titanic its pulse are shut down until, ultimately, there is silence.
And that silence is devastating.
At the centre of it all, Charlie Sheepshanks has complete mastery of the solo form. As Barrett and the succession of men around him, a turn of his voice, an alteration of posture or a shift in physical energy is enough to create another character. There is nowhere to hide in a one-man show, but equally nobody else to interrupt its rhythm. Sheepshanks owns every second.
Perhaps that is why the form seems so perfectly suited to the Fringe. There is something wonderfully threadbare about arriving with your show effectively contained in a single suitcase, performing it day after day, then carrying it on to wherever comes next.
And if you are actually hoping to make money at the Fringe, doing it on your own probably isn’t such a bad idea either.
We all know how Titanic ends. Foreman, Sheepshanks and Izquierdo make us experience how it might have sounded, looked and felt from deep inside its working guts.
From the roar of the furnaces to that final silence, this is exceptional storytelling.
Top marks from me.
Playing until August 31st 2026, https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/2026BOILERR
Reviewer: Greg Holstead
Reviewed: 12th August 2026
North West End UK / Theatre Muse UK Rating:
Running time – 55mins