The deadly race to the South Pole between Britain’s Robert Scott and Norway’s Roald Amundsen nearly 100 years ago inspired a competition won last week by three Canadians who completed the 700-mile trek in just 33 days.
My, how things have changed: The race was sponsored by a Norwegian health- food company named for the explorer who won the battle for national supremacy in 1912.
After watching Scott’s wrenching tale as dramatized in Ted Talley’s award-winning play, “Terra Nova,” it’s a wonder anyone would want to repeat the feat.
The Norwegians, using a dozen dogs it would ride and then hide, made the miserable journey in 53 days — 35 faster than the doomed Brits, all of whom died on the walk home.
The overriding question in this play is, Why?
Why do men vie against insurmountable and unnatural obstacles? What drives their need to touch toes where toes have never touched before?
Duty, sacrifice, honor? Those, we’re told, “are all very good on a full belly.” More likely it’s ego, vanity, foolishness.
It’s easy to understand why men set off in search of new lands to conquer and colonize. The race to the moon, or to the summit of a mountain. But to risk near-certain death just to plant a flag in the coldest spot on Earth?
Scott’s mindset is thoughtfully illuminated in a most capable staging of “Terra Nova” by the Longmont Theatre Company, anchored by a primo performance from Stuart O’Steen. His Scott is a gentleman who’s in it for his queen. He approaches the task in the same way a sportsman might a regatta:
We compete because it’s good to win. And to feel alive.
Some go to a theater to feel that. Others go to where they might die at any moment.
Talley’s smart, surreal play opens with a near-dead Scott writing his final journal entry, just 11 miles from safety. We go into his mind to relive key moments of the journey, as well as imagined interactions with both his scrappy wife and Amundsen, his rival and tormentor. That makes our setting not the South Pole but Scott’s dementia, which solves the problem of having to approximate the actual circumstances of this expedition onstage.
O’Steen’s Scott is a complex and contradictory father figure, a man both driven by competition and haunted by the life lost under his command.
We get to know members of Scott’s team as they fight one another and prop one another up until each succumbs. There’s fine work all around here, particularly Peter Johnson as Evans, who slices his hand and struggles on until gangrene brings on his own heartbreaking delirium.
But the ideological heart of the play rests in the banter between Scott and his Norwegian rival. Brock Williams isn’t as fully at ease in the flashier role of Amundsen, the uninhibited personification of Scott’s inner turmoil. But it’s a weakness of the script that his purpose here is too vaguely established.
Still, director Jennifer Gaydosh builds the tale well to its inevitable, melancholy end.
It’s unfortunate the Longmont Theatre Company’s home in a renovated old moviehouse, despite its incumbent charm, has terrible sightlines because of the near absence of a seating slope. Key action near the front of the stage is lost to craned necks, even from just a few rows back. The best seats here are actually on the sides, where the angle creates a valid sightline.
But don’t let that keep you from considering “Terra Nova.” If you’ve heard of, but never attended, this 51-year-old stalwart of the Colorado community theater, this staging is a great introduction.
Particularly evocative is an expressionistic South Pole set marked by flowing strips of white fabric. It’s by David Lafont, well-known in Denver for his creative designs for Paragon Theatre. It reflects not so much the rugged terrain that has claimed so many lives, but the beauty of it as it may have existed in the mind of Scott — a man ultimately unburdened by hope.
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
“Terra Nova” *** (out of four stars)
Drama. Longmont Theatre Company, 513 Main St. 2 hours, 25 minutes. Through Jan. 24. 7:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. $15-$17. 303-772-5200 or
This week’s theater openings
“52 Pick-Up” and “Shadows in Bloom (Take 2)” “52 Pick-Up” tells the story of one couple’s relationship in 52 short scenes. To start, a deck of cards, each containing the title of a scene, is tossed into the air. The order the actors pick up the cards determines the order of how the story will play out each night. Runs in repertory with “Shadows,” an updated version of Gemma Wilcox’s “Love in Bloom.” She plays 20 characters while exploring a woman and her complex relationships. Through Jan. 24. Presented Gemma Wilcox Productions at the Dairy Center for the Arts, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, 800-838-3006 or
“Dearly Departed” Backwoods Bible Belt comedy about an eccentric family brought together for a funeral, but a series of problems overshadows the solemn occasion. Through Jan. 31. Evergreen Players, 27608 Fireweed Drive, 303-674-4934 or
“Grease”
Bad boys, Pink Ladies and Greased Lightning. Through March 8. Union Colony Dinner Theatre, 802 Ninth Ave., Greeley, 970-352-2900 or
“Mother Hicks” Suzan Zeder’s Depression drama about three outsiders — a foundling girl, a deaf boy and an eccentric recluse suspected of being a witch. Through Feb. 15. Presented by Firehouse Theatre Company at the John Hand Theatre, 7653 E. First Place, 303-562-3232 or
“Tuesdays With Morrie” A self-absorbed sports reporter reunites with an inspiring old college professor dying of Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Through Feb. 16. Backstage Theatre, 121 S. Ridge St., Breckenridge, 970-453-0199 or
Compiled by John Moore
Complete theater listings
Go to our complete list of every currently running production in Colorado, including summaries, run dates, addresses, phones and links to every company’s home page.
