Brilliant presentation of 'Shackleton'

There aren't any more performances, but as part of the Shackleton Autumn School 2019 weekend the Blue Raincoat Theatre Company performed their own version of Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–1917, in the Riverbank Theatre, writes Brian Byrne.

It was a play without speech, and in little over an hour the four-person cast told the story, which included the famous 'Voyage of the James Caird' part of the ill-fated expedition, with the aid of models, 'white sheet' icebergs and ice, and sound effects in a most intense and often inch by inch manner.

It was brilliantly done, riveting, and by the end the audience itself could feel the exhaustion of the crew of the Endurance and the James Caird lifeboat in which three of the explorers — Shackleton himself with Captain F Worsley and the celebrated Tom Crean — set out to get help, eventually resulting in the rescue of the 22 left behind.

If it ever again comes your way, well worth going to.

The cast were John Carty, Barry Cullen, Brian F Devaney and Sandra O'Malley. It was directed by Niall Henry.

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