Radio play brings gripping Shackleton explorer drama to life
Confederation Theatre’s upcoming production of Shackleton has already attracted international attention.
Paul Brown and John Hickie’s new radio play is premièring in the Pumphouse’s Joyce Doolittle Theatre Feb. 23 to March 3. No sooner did they post notices about it than the company received an email from the Shackleton Museum in Athy in County Kildare, Ireland.
It informed the theatre group that Athy was home to Ireland’s famous polar explorer and that the museum houses the world’s only permanent exhibition of all things Ernest Shackleton.
The curator of the museum has asked Confederation for copies of its posters, programs and photos of the play to be part of the everexpanding exhibition.
Paul Brown, who co-authored the script and stars as one of Shackleton’s crew, says he was drawn to the story because “Shackleton is a true hero.
“The story of (the British Royal Navy officer) Robert Scott and his crew is a good story, but Shackleton’s is even better. Scott receives all the attention because he eventually made it to the South Pole, but Shackleton’s failure is an even greater story because it is such an heroic failure.”
When Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, became stuck in the Antarctic ice in 1915, the crew was forced to abandon ship before it sank. There were 28 men aboard that ship and the rest of the world had no idea where they were.
“They were far from the normal shipping routes so there was zero chance of a rescue. They were stranded in a frozen wasteland. They were marooned,” says Brown, who was spurred on to writing this radio play after seeing Kenneth Branagh’s 2002 miniseries on the explorer.
“The live radio play format is an exceptional way to tell this story of heroic survival. The audience not only gets to watch the actors creating their character, but they get to see our foley (sound effects) artists Jon Martin, Fredy Rivas and John Hickie creating the sound effects.
In Confederation’s Shackleton, under the direction of Arthur Zrill, David Michael McArdle plays Shackleton, with Peter Warne, Tony Matthews, Eddie Morrissey, Bill McCarthy, Terry Whittaker, Kevin Chinook and Ross Mullen playing members of the crew.
Confederation’s Shackleton runs Feb. 23-24 and again Feb. 27 to March 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Joyce Doolittle Theatre.