Theatre
The Fire on the Snow
Douglas Stewart · 1941
Synopsis
The play follows five men, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Edward Wilson, Lawrence Oates, Henry Bowers and Edward Evans, on the march of the Terra Nova expedition towards the South Pole. A commentator addresses the listeners directly, in the manner of the chorus of Greek tragedy, and accompanies their progress. The lines draw on Scott's diary, and the verse, bare and full of images, speaks of a ceaseless cold and the endurance of the men, in an adventure at once heroic and tragic, according to the Ivanhoe Reading Circle.
Context
Written for public radio, the play was broadcast by the ABC on 6 June 1941, in a production by Frank Clewlow; Peter Finch, cast as Scott, left for the army four days earlier, and Frank Harvey replaced him. The author also drew on Apsley Cherry-Garrard's account and took inspiration from Archibald MacLeish. Repeated as early as August 1941, then in every decade until 1989, it was staged by the BBC in 1951 by Tyrone Guthrie, with John Mills, and later adapted for the stage by its author. The text was published in 1944 in Sydney, together with another radio play.
Who it is for
A verse play in English, an hour long to listen to, written for voices; no French translation.
Prizes and reception
For Leslie Rees, of ABC drama, the best radio play written in the country; it was long on the examination syllabus.
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