An instrument reminiscent of a foghorn sounds, and the audience settles down on the lawn chairs and blankets at the North Shore Riverfront Park between PNC Park and Heinz Field. A single man hobbles onto the stage, lighting large fires while leaning on his crutch. Soon, the crippled man's crewmates join him on the floating set, which stays steady atop Pittsburgh's Allegheny and Ohio Rivers. The seemingly ordinary beginning to the "Theater Titanick," one of many international performances that are part of the Pittsburgh Festival of Firsts, hardly prepared the audience for the spectacularly unusual show ahead.

"The Theater Titanick" is a German production that was first performed in 1990. Although the theater company that began in the cities of Münster and Leipzig has been in existence since the fall of the Berlin Wall, this open-air rendition of the Titanic tragedy was their first big hit. As with all of the performances in the Pittsburgh Festival of Firsts, last Friday's showing of Theater Titanick was its debut in the United States.

The skeleton framework of the production is simple and typical of a production of the Titanic accident: the boat is built, the boat departs on its voyage, and the boat sinks after hitting an iceberg. Luckily for the audience, who came out in droves for the free show despite the chilly fall weather, the theater company spiced up this standard tale with a few exciting surprises.

Throughout this show, a live band hidden beneath the smoke stack played appropriately haunting music. Alternating between upbeat pieces during scenes of partying passengers and darker, slow pieces during times of danger and chaos, the band contributed the perfect musical atmosphere to the show.

Only the ship's stern is fully constructed on the stage when the production begins. Crew mates build the other two sections of the vessel — the motor beneath the mast and the bow — while entertaining the audience with dancing and acrobatics. For example, to move the motor, essentially a gigantic wheel beneath the mast, two of the performers hop on top of it to the center of the stage.

After the ship is ready to set sail, a woman in an outrageous pink-and-blue outfit drives onto the stage on a motorized tricycle. She and a rich man, presumably her husband, christen the ship with a block of ice and a great fanfare of fireworks. These two characters wave goodbye to the audience as their luggage is loaded on board, the man ironically yelling, "See you soon!" A small red flag is mounted on top of the mast, and fountains of water streaming across the bow of the ship alert the audience that the journey has begun.

Barely out of port, a crew member cries, "Iceberg!"

Although the audience knows the inevitable fate of the vessel, those aboard the ship remain blissfully ignorant of their fate for much of the show.

The crew mate with the cane is the only person aboard who attempts to stop the leakage, denoted by a fountain stream of water, in the bow of the ship. Some others are aware of the problem, but go about their ordinary activities of entertaining the pink-and-blue lady and the man. The lady takes a steamy bath and the crew serenades her. Soon after, the lady and gentleman feast on an enormous roasted pig, decorated with sparklers. As they greedily devour it, they throw pieces of pork far enough that they almost hit the audience. Then they dance, enjoying themselves as the ship continues to take on more water.

Eventually, the danger of sinking becomes altogether too real to ignore. Crew members use flares to send out an S.O.S. and attempt to clog the holes, but their efforts are all for naught. Various sections of the bow and stern erupt into flames and water rushes throughout the stage, and the voice of a man is heard screaming above the music on the sound system.

As is woefully expected, the ship "sinks" beneath the ocean and flames, signified by gushing streams of water pouring on stage and fires burning through the set. Meanwhile, the characters who the audience has come to enjoy all die grotesquely, strewn across the set as the ship collapses around them.

Along with Theater Titanick, the Japanese Pappa TARAHUMARA and the English lone twin were shown last weekend as part of the Festival of Firsts. In the upcoming two weeks, performances from England, Spain, Russia, and Poland will all premiere at various venues across Pittsburgh.