TOM CREAN: ANTARCTIC EXPLORER

For real-life tales of adventure that put this summer's blockbusters to shame (and offer a kind of psychological relief from the season's heat), make sure you see Tom Crean: Antarctic Explorer, which runs at the Irish Repertory Theatre until September 9, 2007.

Starring Aidan Dooley in a role he seems born to play, Tom Crean is a tour de force of storytelling (or, for you theater folk, "dramatic monologue") in which Dooley takes on the persona of Crean, the courageous Irishman who survived no less than three early Antarctic expeditions under Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton. (Crean can be seen in the 1919 Shackleton documentary South, previously covered here.)

Dooley is completely on top of his material, sharing Crean's hard-won tales of ice and sea and courage by drawing on inner energy that takes on a theatrical force of its own. Crean actually had a reputation for not talking about what he had endured, but I'm glad Dooley took whatever liberties he needed to take in order to channel his story to audiences today. And it goes well with the recently released documentary Deep Water, which covers some of the same ocean.

I've seen tickets to Tom Crean available at TKTS.

Here are YouTube videos inspired by Crean.



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