It does seem to be
true that England salutes gallant failure more than
success, a point that comes up time and time again in
Ted Tally’s Terra
Nova at the Palace, Watford. The
author, an American, probably finds this national trait
more fascinating than we do, because the ability to
“psych” ourselves up to face defeat has served us well
in the past, whether it be Dunkirk, the World Cup or
Scott’s expedition to the South Pole, the subject of
this play.
Tally incorporates Roald Amundsen, the man who got to
the South Pole first and never actually met Scott, into
the action of Terra
Nova, suddenly appearing to tell Scott in
ruthless Scandinavian fashion, that the English
expedition, composed of gentlemen and amateurs, has no
chance against Amundsen’s professionals, who are
prepared to use their dogs as food to get to the Pole
first. Scott, of course, did not use dogs at all, the
party trudging to the Pole, battling blizzards and
frostbite on foot. The end may have been
inevitable, but it was very decent and British, with
Evans, mad with pain from his injured hand, dying from a
haemorrhage, Oates hobbling out into the Arctic wastes
on his gangrenous foot, and Scott, Wilson and Bowers
huddling together, drained of all strength, to await
death. An example then, of the English
character at its best and most foolish. But Terra
Nova, for all its switches in time and place, has
many intensely moving moments, deliberately wrapped up
in a semi-delirious montage. One suspects that the play
works better on the small Watford stage than it did on
the wide-open spaces of Chichester, and it is cleverly
directed by Michael Attenborough in Joe Vanek’s bare,
glaringly white setting.
Though possibly too young for Scott, Robert Powell
gives a brave, thoughtful performance as a man whose
polar obsession was caused by lack of progress in his
naval career, and there are fine performances by Donald
Gee, Bill Stewart, David Troughton and Neil Phillips as
his colleagues, by Michael Culver as Amundsen and by
Stephanie Beacham as Scott’s sculptress wife, firm in
her belief in her husband’s qualities and strong in her
acceptance of the final tragedy.