| For their first production for 2012, and to commemorate the centenary of Scott’s expedition, the Genesian Theatre Company’s current show is a revival of American playwright Ted Tally’s play, TERRA NOVA (1977). Tally’s play recounts the famous story of British navy-man Captain Robert Scott’s fated expedition, of the same name, in 1911 to the South Pole, where he attempted to be the first man to put his country’s flag on land.
This is a huge man against nature story and as I was watching Mark Langham’s very competent, and well performed production unfold, on a great set designed by Owen Gimblett, I kept on thinking that this isn’t really working me, that I don’t feel like I’m being taken into Scott’s challenging, at times hellish world.
I know I’ve been spoiled over my theatre-going years! I’ve seen so many contemporary, cutting edge productions where different forms of media, including reverberating sound, video, slideshows and lighting are used to such telling effect. They really make you feel like you are there!
It doesn’t help when Langham only had the Genesian’s tiny stage to work with, not to mention the constraints of a community theatre budget! Perhaps,and there is a whole debate here, big, experiential productions are best left to the major theatre companies who can use the latest technical effects?!
I kept on reflecting of how the Genesian’s previous production, Timothy Bennett’s revival of Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy, AN IDEAL HUSBAND, was so much more suited to this venue, and more the kind of theatre that this Company does well.
All credit goes to the hard work of a very capable cast; Roger Gimblett as Scott, Flora Mine as his devoted wife, Kathleen, Tom Massey as his rival Amundsen, James Moir as the quiet Dr Wilson, Sam Ryan as the rowdy Lieutenant Birdie Bowers, Michael Sydes as the ailing Petty Officer Evans, and Jack Wieczorek as the vigorous Captain Titus Oates.
The Genesian Theatre Company’s production of Ted Tally’s TERRA NOVA opened at the Genesian Theatre, 420 Kent street, Sydney on Saturday 14th January and plays until Saturday 4th February, 2012.
© David Kary
from Sydney Arts Guide
Captain Scott's epic, and ultimately fatal, final adventure is the true stuff of legend. Following his own brand of muscular Christianity, Scott led his men towards what he believed to be his pre-ordained destiny - pre-eminence at the South Pole. Ted Tally's insightful play examines whether one of recent history's most epic failures was a result of bad luck, bad planning or, as some historians believe, the final act in Scott's doomed existence.
In the centenary of their death, the play looks at the character of the men who lived and died in the Antarctic wastes and shows the human face of a fateful journey.
Genesian Theatre
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