Playwright: Ted Tally
At: Eclipse BackStage at Stage Left,
3408 N. Sheffield
Phone: (312) 683-5347; $12-$15
Runs through: Dec. 18
Ted Tally (best known for his Academy Award-winning adaptation of Silence of the Lambs) was a graduate student in his 20s when he penned Terra Nova, based on the true story of Robert Falcon Scott’s doomed 1911 attempt to be the first explorer to reach the South Pole. Terra Nova (the name comes from the whaling vessel that carried Scott and his men to Antarctica) is the kind of story that works in drama, because it has all the right elements: danger, heroism, love, and most of all, the ambitious push for a goal that is against all odds. Although Scott attracted worldwide attention for his efforts, he ultimately lost out to Norwegian Roald Amundsen, who beat him by a month. Tally’s play brings to life this journey and its hardships, chronicling the spirit of a man who was perhaps too bound by principle to be successful (unlike Amundsen, he cared more for his men’s well-being than about realizing his goal).
Scott may have also made a key mistake in eschewing the help of dog teams to traverse the frozen plain, instead using his own men to pull a sled weighing half a ton across the ice. But it was Scott’s belief that realizing his goal would be much more meaningful if he used only human power to get where he was going. He wrote, ‘In my mind no journey ever made with dogs can approach the height of that fine conception which is realised when a party of men go forth to face hardships, dangers, and difficulties with their own unaided efforts, and by days and weeks of hard physical labour succeed in solving some problem of the great unknown. Surely in this case the conquest is more nobly and splendidly won.’
BackStage Theatre Company’s production has much to recommend it. Director Brandon Bruce has elicited several fine performances that showcase both the suffering and the triumph of the expedition, and has a firm hand on the downward spiral that brought death to Scott and to all of the men in his party, just 10 miles away from safety. Nancy O’Freeman makes good use of the narrow, small space of the Stage Left Theatre, setting us down in a suggested but evocative frozen landscape. Freeman’s costume design also contributes to the feeling of inhuman cold and historic authenticity. Michael Pacas, as Scott, does a heroic job with a heroic part, making Scott a man we root for (even though we know the mission will end in tragedy) and admire. The men who portray Scott’s team all turn in amazing work, most notably from Ronald Kuzava, who plays a sprightly, optimistic Brit. Kuzava brings inestimable charm to the role and has the most realistic dialogue of the cast. On the opposite end of the realistic dialogue spectrum, however, is Sean Sullivan’s Roald Amundsen’s supposed Norwegian accent, which sounds so mannered and Russian as to be distracting. A pity because Sullivan is a strong player with a commanding presence.
If Terra Nova has one major flaw it’s the script itself. Tally penned it when he was only 24 or 25 (inspired by a Yale undergraduate’s photo exhibition of Scott’s expedition), which maybe explains why the play is so wordy, especially toward the end. There’s evidence of a young playwright too in love with his own words and concept to do the kind of ruthless cutting that would actually make the piece stronger. Terra Nova is an inspiring story, with a solid production, but the playwright’s self indulgence manifests itself when we begin to wish the beleaguered Scott would just shut up and die already.