Dec 29, 2009
Terra Nova | Terra Nova
At a glance:
- Author: Ted Tally
- First Published: 1981
- Type of Plot: Psychological; history; memory play
- Time of Work: Winter, 1911-1912
- Setting: Antarctica and London
- Principal Characters: Robert Falcon Scott, Roald Amundsen, Kathleen, Wilson, Bowers, Oates, Evans
- Genres: Existential literature, Drama, Psychological drama, History play, Memory play
- Subjects: History, Blizzards, Ambition, Adventure, Conquest, Exploration or explorers, Snow, Antarctica, Polar regions, Weather, South Pole, Expeditions
- Locales: London, England, Antarctica
The Play
The play opens with a bare stage set in the winter of 1912. A series of ten rear-projected
slides depict the journey of Robert Falcon Scott’s ship, the Terra Nova, to
Antarctica. A weary Scott sits writing, speaking the words as he writes. Forty-one years old, he
has lost the race to the Pole and considers himself a failure. Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian
explorer who reached the Pole before Scott, appears throughout the play to both taunt and
debate the Englishman. In many ways, Amundsen functions as Scott’s conscience,
articulating Scott’s internal...
[The entire page is 2027 words long]
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