Frozen in Time ‘Terra Nova’ production details explorer’s doomed expedition to Antarctica in 1911-12

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To many Mainers, cold is a subzero day, with the winds blowing and snow swirling. But as the cast of the Ten Bucks Theatre Company’s production of “Terra Nova” has learned, explorers of the Antarctic faced far harsher conditions.

“Terra Nova,” penned by “The Silence of the Lambs” screenwriter Ted Tally, tells the story of Capt. Robert Scott’s doomed expedition to the South Pole in the winter of 1911-1912. “Terra Nova,” adapted from Scott’s own journals, will be staged at 8 p.m. Oct. 17-18 and 24-25 and at 2 p.m. Oct. 19 and 26 at the Brewer Middle School Auditorium.

Scott headed up a five-man English team that found itself racing to the pole against a Norwegian crew led by Roald Amundsen. The two parties were a contrast in methods, as Amundsen opted for dogs to haul his men and supplies, while Scott used first horses, then manpower, to cross the inhospitable terrain. The Norwegians arrived at the pole first, by four weeks. The dispirited Englishmen never finished the return trip home, with the final three dying 11 miles short of their food depot.

Scott’s story has fascinated the play’s director, Julie Arnold Lisnet, since her school days.

“I was haunted by the idea of these poor men so far away from home in an inhospitable environment,” Lisnet recalled. “They had quite a horrific time of it.”

Ever since reading Tally’s play in 1981, Lisnet has wanted to take on the role of Scott’s young wife in the play, but when she proposed mounting a production of “Terra Nova” to directors, all shied away from the challenge of re-creating the Antarctic on stage.

So now that she has passed the age of the role, Lisnet decided to direct the play instead. She’s aided by a strong cast: Ron Adams as Scott, Robert Libbey as Amundsen, Lily Christian as Kathleen Scott, George Bragdon as Bowers, Christopher Franklin as Oates, Dominick Varney as Wilson and Allen Adams as Evans.

When Lisnet decided to help her cast to understand what Scott and company faced, she went to an expert: Dr. Paul Mayewski, director of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine. Over the past 35 years, Mayewski has taken part in 40 expeditions to the Arctic, the Antarctic and the Himalayas.

He’s a world leader in the collection and analysis of ice cores, which average 100 meters long. Ice cores are composed of layers of snow. As snow accumulates, it retains a record of the environmental conditions in which it was created.

Early in the rehearsal process, Mayewski visited the Brewer Middle School auditorium to speak to the cast about what conditions Scott and his expedition would have faced in Antarctica in the early 1900s.

First, he gave some statistics about Antarctica. The continent is 11/2 times the size of the United States, and its size doubles in the winter as the seas surrounding it freeze. In Scott’s day, explorers’ ships could only come in when the sea ice was minimal, said the Castine resident.

Antarctica holds 90 percent of the fresh water on Earth in frozen form. Average core temperatures are minus 60 degrees Celsius in the summer and minus 100 to minus 120 degrees Celsius in the winter.

Mayewski said that equipment similar to what Scott used (light sleds, some outerwear, tents of Egyptian cotton) are still being used today. Still, advances such as snowmobiles, planes and cell phones have helped to make expeditions there less treacherous than in the days of the early explorers.

Yet the vistas that greet today’s visitors are much the same as 100 years ago.

“Nothing changes in these places,” Mayewski told the cast members. “It’s timeless. It’s very easy to put yourself in the same places they were. The first thing you hear is your heartbeat in your ears, then your breathing, then your feet crunching on snow.”

Half the year is light in Antarctica, with the other half dark. Most of the expeditions happen during those light months.

“There’s no concept of time,” said Mayewski, who will speak at a director’s forum following the Oct. 19 show. “You work as long as you want, then sleep as long as you want.”

Mayewski estimated that it takes newcomers about two weeks to adjust to being there, after which “you feel really good.”

Among the possible problems that visitors face are sunburn, windburn, dehydration, hypothermia, fire, high winds and hidden crevasses.

Another obstacle is depression.

“You keep each other going, which can create incredible bonds,” Mayewski said. “People rise to the occasion, physically, mentally and emotionally.”

Lisnet and her group of Antarctic explorers face challenges as well.

One is the gear and props with which the actors must deal.

“You’ve got to act in the Arctic gear, which limits you in terms of facial expressions,” Lisnet said. “Also the sledge they’re working with is pretty heavy.”

On the backdrop itself will be projected photo montages and other images relevant to the times in which the play is set.

“The play is largely a hallucination in Scott’s mind, so it’s more a dreamy type landscape,” Lisnet said. “To move all these people around, to block them in this landscape, is very challenging.”

A tragedy about long-ago British explorers isn’t the stuff of upbeat musicals to which community theatergoers may be accustomed. That’s the appeal to Lisnet.

“That’s what makes the play so wonderful,” she said. “It has things people don’t see very often in theater.”

Admission is $10 and $5 for those under 12. Call 884-1030 for information and ticket requests.