Riveting endurance story shackled by its limitations
MICHAEL MOFFATT SHOW OF THE WEEK
How you respond to this theatrical version of Ernest Shackleton’s epic expedition to Antarctica in 1916 will depend on how much you know about the voyage beforehand. If you know the story well, you may be disappointed that the powerful personalities involved are not portrayed individually, nor does it convey the ingenuity of the Endeavour’s crew in surviving for months in dreadful conditions on pack ice and boats. Those who don’t already know it may be slightly bemused at times.
The different stages of the expedition from shipwreck in the Weddell Sea, to the four months on ice, the journey to Elephant Island, the astonishing 800-mile voyage by small boat to South Georgia for assistance and the perilous three-man crossing of the island are all there but not always clearly distinguished.
It is, nonetheless, an excep- tional piece of atmospheric theatre conveying the fragility of life in terrifying surroundings.
It’s played without dialogue, apart from some quotations projected on-screen at the beginning and at the end.
Some of the photographs from the expedition are also projected, and the production combines mime, music, the incessant sound of howling winds, crashing seas and creaking wood, with miniature models of the ship and boats and occasionally of the men.
The ethereal sound of John McCormack singing The Wearing Of The Green is a gesture towards Tom Crean who regularly sang it during the expedition.
The cast of four, John Carty, Barry Cullen, Brian Devaney, and Sandra O’Malley (there were no women among the crew) move white cloths around initially to represent the pack ice gradually encroaching on the ship, and finally crushing it. They also mime the difficulties of enduring the bitter cold and gale-force winds, and manipulate models to show the small boats heaving through treacherous seas.
It’s unfortunate that the nature of the production leaves no scope for the individual characteristics of the seamen: Shackleton’s leadership qualities, Crean’s imperturbability and Frank Worsley’s astonishing feats of navigation.
But the play does, nonetheless, provide an engrossing 80 minutes of endurance under pressure.