One of the most powerful relationships within Terra Nova is the relationship between Robert Falcon Scott and his nemesis Roald Amundsen. Amundsen appears in Scott’s imagination in Terra Nova as a formidable force of condemnation for the way Scott handled his attempt at his expedition. Almost like the devil on Scott’s shoulder, Amundsen turns up throughout the play to point out his weaknesses and mistakes which inevitably will lead to his death. Over the weekend rehearsals we discussed how smart we believed Amundsen to be. Rather than depend on good old ‘sportsmanship’ Amundsen did whatever it took to get his men to the Pole and back safely, including eating his own dogs for sustenance.
Amundsen initially wanted to explore the North, but after hearing of others claiming the North Pole already he had a change of heart and headed South. He misled Scott (and his own team by all accounts) by not making this fact known.
After his ship Fram arrived in Madeira he informed his men where they were going and sent a telegram to Scott, it said simply:
BEG TO INFORM YOU FRAM PROCEEDING ANTARCTIC - AMUNDSEN.
How very unsporting of him.
Several other techniques were used by Amundsen which ensured his trip was a successful one. He used Eskimo skins rather than wool, dogs hauled his sledges instead of the men and he set up a line of supply depots south of the pole. Starting their journey on the 19th October 1911 with 52 dogs they got to the Pole on December 14th 1911, 35 days before Scott’s team. When they returned to their base camp on the 25th January 1912 there were only 11 dogs left. 41 unlucky dogs had been turned into dinner.
Scott’s tragic journey was hindered by his preparation, equipment, bad luck and occasionally (in my opinion) his very British ‘stiff upper lip’ attitude. A gentleman does not eat dogs, how barbaric!
Barbarian perhaps but Amundsen made it, alive.
Rehearsals are taking shape nicely now. We managed to run through the whole of the first act last night, with costumes too. However, they are making the boys on stage rather hot and sticky so we’ll to combat the heat somehow. We can’t have our men sweating in the Antarctic!
Opening night is the 7th of June and we’ll be running the play for 2 weeks, join us! I’ll be keeping you thoroughly updated on where to get tickets so keep following us on our adventure…
I always quite liked Amundsen. He did his research, looked at the methods the Inuit had of getting about in the Arctic, and applied that knowledge. The dogs were eaten but that had always been the plan and Amundsen's diaries on the subject are quite heartbreaking as of course he and the men had become quite fond of them. Compared with the Scott expedition that pretty much discounted thousands of years of native knowledge in favour of modern British technology (that didn't work) and ponies(!?), it smacks of fatal arrogance to me...
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you! Amundsen also said he would have saved Scott had he known he was in dire straits. His character in the play is perhaps more of an antagonist/villain for the purposes of really highlighting where Scott went wrong for an audience. I tend to agree with you about the arrogance too, although this could just be down to my nationality ;)
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