written and performed by Aidan Dooley
Sugan Theatre Co. in BCA Plaza Theatre
529 Tremont St. Boston / (617) 933 - 8600
through Feb. 11
The exploration of the vast ice-covered continent at the bottom of the world, at least in the last century's geopolitical terms, has been the subject of PBS documentaries and various traveling museum exhibitions. Aidan Dooley's rousing performance of his one-man docudrama, "Tom Crean - Antartic Explorer" will remind anyone complaining about the cold of a New England winter how easy life in these temperate latitudes actually is. This two act remembrance of the voyages of Scott and Shackleton which Crean accompanied brings these remarkable--and ill-fated--adventures to vivid life. The US premiere of "Tom Crean - Antartic Explorer" won Dooley the Best Solo Show award at the 2003 New York International Fringe Festival in NYC, as well as Best Actor nomination at the Dublin Festival that same year. He performed this show for the second time at Northern Stages in Burlington VT this fall.
"Tom Crean - Antartic Explorer" is a demonstration of the power of the spoken word as Dooley, standing a piece of worn canvas using a few homely props, brings the frozen world of Antartica into vivid focus. In the grand tradition of the sennachie, he tells the story of Scott's two doomed expeditions and Shackleton's remarkable rescue of his. A battered long sledge, intended to be pulled by dogs but more usually dragged for hundreds of miles by men, hangs against black curtains behind him. The sound of the howling wind is heard from time to time. The monodrama draws the audience in largely due to the genial personality the actor creates for his hero. Born in Galway, but now based in Manchester, England, Dooley gives us a true Kerryman, who ended his days after surviving the Antartic and WWI, keeping the pub he built, the "South Pole", in his hometown of Annascaul. The odd dig at Cork stresses that humor, like politics, can also be local.
Monodrama, as this form of monologue is more properly known, requires intensely focused actin and a real sense of the audience. Dooley has not only written the piece to facilitate this, with moments of audience contact interspersed with vivid storytelling which transforms the stage into the harsh reality of icy Antartica, but plays his hero consistently throughout. Tom Crean, reminiscing about his travels and his comrades comes alive by simple stages, from a man lecturing about Antartic conditions to an everyman persevering in the face of these unbelievably harsh realities.
Dooley's company, "Play on Words" tours Shakespeare and Living History shows to schools throughout the U.K. He's worked extensively with National Museums around England on various projects. One can hope not only for a return of "Tom Crean..." sometime in the future, but perhaps other offerings from this actor/author should his fortunes bring him back to these shores. Sugan's next offering, March 17 - April 8, will be the American premiere of "Talking with Terrorists", another documentary piece, which had a controversial run in London last season, comparing the struggles in Northern Ireland with those in the Middle East, taken directly from the words of those involved.