Atlantic

9/11/2025

This is one of the earliest British-made talkies and I think you really have to take that embryonic spirit into account if you’re to get much from this drama. We embark upon the “Atlantic” for a cruise across that self-same body of water and as they head towards something we know to be inevitable, we encounter the usual mix of the hoi polloi below decks and landed gentry above and enjoy some of their rather procedural and histrionic antics. Now if you’re a regular theatre visitor, then you’ll be familiar with the concept of projecting your voice so those up in the gods can hear you enunciate. Well here, despite the presence of microphones mere inches from the actors, the likes of Madeleine Carroll and even the more demure Helen Haye belt out their lines as if they were, themselves, trying