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If you didn’t manage to immerse yourself in the captivating underwater world of Kursk on its first outing at the Young Vic last summer, grab this second chance now. Seeing this thrilling piece about life aboard a Trafalgar class hunter-killer submarine once again, I appreciated even more the detail that makes it so compelling.
Despite the title’s suggestion, it’s a British vessel rather than its doomed Russian counterpart that is the focus of this innovative quasi-promenade production on the most authentic split-level set (designer Jon Bausor) I’ve seen in years. This submarine, we are informed, houses 130 men, although we meet only the Commander (a nicely brooding Laurence Mitchell) and four crew members as they undertake a lengthy secret mission to the Barents Sea to monitor US and Russian movements. We experience the Kursk’s dreadful fate — it sank in August 2000 with the loss of all hands — alongside the helpless, compassionate British sailors.
Writer Bryony Lavery and co-directors Mark Espiner and Dan Jones do so much right that it’s hard to know where to start. Their research is used deftly, not least for all sorts of authentic-sounding technical jargon during the submarine’s manoeuvres. The sound design is sublime. Best of all, though, is the human angle, the sense of frustration and camaraderie as these men try to carve out fragments of personal lives in the astonishingly cramped living conditions. It’s to everyone’s credit that we soon feel as though as we have known the likes of anxious new father Mike (the excellent Tom Espiner) for years. Unmissable.
Until 17 April. Information: 020 7922 2922, www.youngvic.org
Kursk
Young Vic
The Cut, SE1 8LZ