The Last South - Pursuit of the Pole

Published Friday 10 August 2007 at 12:05 by Thom Dibdin

G M Calhoun creates a vivid picture of Amundsen and Scott’s epic race to the South Pole in 1911 by finessing together the journals they kept.

Crucially, in this unofficial race in which neither contestant could see the other, the extracts are set side by side in terms of distance travelled and not by strict chronology.

It makes for a thrilling picture, both of the two adventurers and of the trials and triumphs of their trips. Including Amundsen’s joy at achieving the pole first - and Scott’s slow acknowledgement of his party’s final catastrophe and the suppressed terror of knowing he is about to die.

Jamie Lee and Adrian Lukis both bring the force of the two personalities to their reading of the texts. Lee’s Amundsen is arrogant and determined, quite aware he is the underdog, while Lukis’ Scott is permeated with the stoic British idealism that epitomises the end of Empire.

If only director Rob Mulholland had insisted his actors learned their lines, instead of reading the texts, this might be very good indeed. Caught between off-the-book performance and rehearsed reading, there are too many misread lines and hesitant entrances too allow the script’s full potential to shine. Very poor.