French connection

Much trumpeted as the first exhibition to explore together the lives of Horatio Nelson and Napoleon Bonaparte, Nelson & Napoleon at once raises the double question of was it a good idea and does it work? This crowded display is a qualified success, with an audiovisual presentation which re-enacts the Battle of Trafalgar every five minutes or so in blips of light and moderate sound effects, and is curiously unconvincing as a centrepiece. Two upper floors of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, are given over to this large and ambitious exhibition, which is the highlight of SeaBritain 2005, a year-long festival of events around the UK (for more information consult the website: www.seabritain2005.com), celebrating our special relationship with the sea.

The exhibition’s designers, Ralph Appelbaum Associates UK, modestly describe their efforts as ‘an important milestone in UK exhibition design’. RAA UK are apparently renowned for their storytelling style, which ‘ensures moments of searing clarity’, while their aim is to ‘encourage visitors to emotionally connect’ with Nelson and Napoleon.