The Last Ship ★★★★ Theatre Royal Drury Lane | Sep 22 - Oct 3, 2026


Sting’s The Last Ship draws on his experience of growing up in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, as the shipbuilding industry that shaped the community went into decline. Dominating the stage is an enormous ship, freighted with the hopes and dreams of a community dwarfed by political and economic forces beyond its control. The last ship becomes both a symbol of the dying yard and a vessel for the community’s aspirations in the face of the harsh reality that their livelihoods and way of life are about to disappear. It also becomes an image of the human condition and the inevitability of death, as Sting plays the ailing foreman Jackie White, awaiting Charon, the mythic ferryman played by Shaggy, to take him across to the other side. Against this grim backdrop unfolds the story of Meg and Gideon, whose relationship was ruptured seventeen years earlier when he went to sea, unknowingly leaving her pregnant and exposed to the judgement of a critical community. One of the great strengths of the show is its creation of that community. With characters like the drunken Davey and the bookish Adrian, we quickly recognise these people and their ways of coping with the world in which they find themselves. This is a cast that is universally strong, and the principals are outstanding. Declan Bennett brings a deep sense of past pain and a yearning for emotional roots to the returning Gideon, while Frances McNamee gives Meg both fire and vulnerability, making her instantly relatable. Paralleling their relationship is that of Jackie and his wife Peggy, with Sting and Jackie Morrison proving equally affecting as a couple confronting the finality of his illness. In the role of the enigmatic Wallsend ferryman, Shaggy brings a sly theatricality that adds a touch of lightness to his otherworldly character. The staging is magnificent, with an astonishing recreation of the ship and shipyard enhanced by evocative video projections. Sting’s score ranges from the stirring title song to the poignant “I Love Her But She Loves Someone Else”, beautifully sung by Matt Beveridge as Meg’s disappointed suitor Freddy, while Declan Bennett gives “The Night That the Pugilist Learned How to Dance” a light, nostalgic touch. It is a real treat to have a musical in which so many of the songs are memorable, melodic and rooted in the world of the story. As Jackie faces death, his personal decline mirrors the death of the shipyard and the community whose identity and livelihoods have been bound up with it. Faced with forces beyond their control, he and his fellow workers can do little to alter the outcome. However, they can assert their dignity and pride in the work and in the lives that they have built. Against the inevitability of these realities, the story of Gideon and Meg offers a more hopeful counterpoint. The shipyard cannot be saved, but a broken relationship might be repaired, suggesting that even in the face of profound loss, something positive can endure. The last ship, Utopia, might be an ending, but it may also serve to mark the enduring human desire to create, to belong and to hope.

Rated: ★★★★

Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Nienke de Groot

When, Where, Getting there:
Map & Location: Catherine St, London WC2B 5JF, UK

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