A play exploring the story of Titanic owner Bruce Ismay is to be one of the opening events of Belfast's Titanic 100 festival.

The play documents one of the most controversial incidents in the fateful story of the RMS Titanic. It tells the tale of J Bruce Ismay - the ship's owner – who survived the tragic events of 15 April 1912 by stepping into one of the ship’s lifeboats and sailing away from the stricken ship and from his passengers.

The play is holding its Belfast premiere on Saturday April 9 as part of Belfast City Council's two-month 'Titanic 100' festival and asks if Ismay only did what any of us would have done in the same circumstances, or should his actions on that night consign his name to infamy.

Written by Patrick Prior, 'The Man Who Left The Titanic' is set 20 years after the disaster and is performed as a duologue between Ismay, reflecting on the horrors of the night in question, and Thomas Andrews, the ship’s designer, who remained on board, and whose ghost haunts and taunts the magnate.

A number of other plays are being staged as part of the programme. These include Blackness After Midnight, a dramatization of the Lord Enquiry into the role of the Californian in the disaster; and The Iceberg, the late Stewart Parker's 1975 radio play, about the Harland & Wolff Guarantee Group, performed for a new audience by Belfast’s Southbank Players.

Titanic 100 also will feature talks, walks, bus and boat tours, exhibitions and family events, culminating on Tuesday 31 May – the centenary of Titanic's launch.

Tickets for all events, where required, are available from the Belfast Welcome Centre.

The Man Who Left The Titanic can be seen at the City Hall this coming Saturday and Sunday April 9 and 10, and again at The Barge, Lanyon Place on Friday 27 and Saturday 28 May.

(DW/BMcC)