TERRA NOVA
SCRIPT ANALYSIS
BARRY, KIRK, DENISE,
STACEY, AND JOHN
WHERE DOES THE PLAY TAKE PLACE?
Prologue
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SD
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Darkness and silence.
Vast moonlit seascape, the water filled with chunks of ice.
Scott’s ship, the Terra Nova is in heavy seas.
Sailor’s in sou’westers manning pumps on the port side. The ship trapped in pack ice.
Then a long, grey mountain range, with snow-capped peaks. Then a tortured surface where drifts of snow have been whipped into frozen waves.
Then a vast panorama in which the only perceivable detail can be found in the sky, which is grey-streaked and threatening….the final slide brightens and brightens until finally it shows no contrasts at all, but is just a blank square of light, as if the photograph itself had been burned away by a pure white flame.
The wind is a cry of rage or pain.
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He wears Antarctic, kneeling on one knee, hunched over rigidly; he seems battered by the wind.
He seems battered by the wind
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From starting in darkness, we see the Terra Nova and then we are invited into a world in which most audience members are unfamiliar. From dark silence we see projections—moonlit seascapes—ice and endless sky ----- snow-capped landscape- Lighting effects—intense wind urges us to feel the freeze.
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1
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1
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Stage Directions
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Light, flowing summer dress
Hair up
Set for a party
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Amundsen
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Royal Geographic Society
England’s own hero of the Antarctic
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Scott
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I can’t make-- my hands…(helplessly) I can’t move the pencil
if I can’t move the pencil
I just—my hands
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A different world when we see Kathleen in a light, flowing summer dress-hair up—
Royal Geographic Society gives background info for Scott—
Scott’s hands are unable to function as a result of frigid temperatures of this icy world.
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1
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2
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SD
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sound of wind, softly
aware for the first time of his surroundings, his audience
mittens
balaclava (Eskimo hat)
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Scott
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My hands—I can’t feel the pencil
extraordinary place
Terrible and wonderful
Flames exploding in air!
Mountains of crystal…
Colors falling from the sky
Silence, like a scream into wind
Silence like sleep
Like a dream
I can’t write any longer
Members of the Society
In this room, tonight
No human footprints have yet appeared at the South Geographic Pole
I intend they shall be British footprints
Destination is Antarctica
Union Jack
Bottom of the earth
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Kathleen
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Why don’t you come in now—getting dark
ran down to the beach
calm sea
floated w/ face turned up to the moon
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Bowers
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Amundsen
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The Captain has…(snaps out of Kathleen locale)
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First location established by Scott being aware of his audience-
Specific costume references reflect a cold environment-
Again, Scott’s hands are affected by the cold—
Numerous terms establish this place as other-worldy
Pulled into different location with Kathleen urging Scott to come in and her beach references—
Amundsen referring to Scott as Captain snaps us from his world with Kathleen.
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3
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SD
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hauling their sled
sled is very heavy and awkward to move.. piled high with supply boxes ..lashed over w/ tarpaulin
obstruction in their path
kneel to examine crack which bars their way
Evans sits back on sled
Kneel..studying the ground
They are not certain ice ahead will bear weight of sled
Sled will not budge
rest on the sled
chops at the ice around the base of the runners
front end of the sled slowly lifted a few inches
Bowers half collapsing over the side of the sled
Drag the sled over the stage and off
wind is heard
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Bowers
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Bit of a crack
There’s a thin crust over it
Go back two hundred miles and turn starboard ‘stead of port
Hundred miles back
Lovely weather for ducks
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Oates
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Not a crack….bleeding crevasse
Help me pull us up to the edge
bridge of ice
crevasse
footing better on this side
Firmer crust here
this side of the Beardmore
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Wilson
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Can you see the bottom?
runners are iced up
soft powder
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Scott
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Pole
Great Barrier Glacier
pride of English manhood
traces… runners..
moved it all eight inches further along
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Hauling the awkward sled that is piled high with supplies establishes the necessary equipment for such an expedition
The explorers encounter an icy crevasse-crack- which serves as an obstacle to this harsh environment
They must also chop the ice (obstacle) around the around base of runners—uncertainty as to whether the ice ahead will bear the weight of the sled—emphasizes the danger ahead in this locale
Collapsing over side of sled—exhaustion in this unfamiliar part of the world
Wind hauntingly reminds us where we are
Reference to location with one hundred miles back
This side of the Beardmore ( a specific glacier in Antarctic) establishes where we might be
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4
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SD
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High boots….huge dark coat…bristling fur collar
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Scott
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In – conclusion-ladies and gentlemen
Whole new continent
How like another planet it must feel to stand at the bottom of the earth There are rules-codes-standards among civilized men! One doesn’t cease behaving properly ….entering a wilderness
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Amundsen
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Thousand pound sled… manhauled across sixteen hundred miles
Eightieth day of my journey (referring to vastness)
another planet
A foreigner, then
the English game
swore to take the North Pole and leave the South to you
lied to me in front of the whole world
I sat in the firelight and listened to tales of huge icecaps, where perhaps the gods still walked the earth….
I’m going South, English
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Scott referring to audience pulls us away from the frigid place
Whole new continent refers to the unexplored---like another planet—bottom of the earth
Rules and codes back home—hints that new standards apply away from home---entering a wilderness
Thousand ponds of sled (danger) –manhauled across sixteen hundred miles –eightieth day of my journey (vastness)
Going South-where gods still walk the earth—who knows the land that we are entering
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1
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5
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SD
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Becomes quite dark---wind fades—replaced by sound of trickling water, as from a small fountain. Patterns of leafy shadow appear across the moonlit ground
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Kathleen
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You said you were going upstairs to rest
Why don’t you come in now?
You’ll get a chill
As he won’t take notice inside –tackle him in the garden
Birthday party
Look in on him later
Why don’t you come in now?
You’ll get a chill.
I thought, as he won’t take notice inside, I shall simply have to tackle him in the garden.
I’ve made a birthday party, and I’ve knitted a scarf.
Tucked in ages ago.
You’ll get a severe dressing-down in the a.m., I should think.
It’s lovely out. The air is so still.
What’s that smell, do you notice?
It’s Italianate.
Are the stars as nice in the southern hemisphere?...
Looking at them with the world turned wrongside-up?
Half-way, yes.
Well you’re going back, of course you are.
“Scott of the Antarctic!”
But I wonder – is there a single person in this country who can guess how you actually despise that place?
Well, go back and take it!
You walk through your days like a man in a dream.
It’s terribly cold.
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Scott
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I came down here I’ve embarrassed you in front of your friends, haven’t I?
Lilacs. The whole place reeks of them, I can barely breathe.
The goldfish pool, your sculptures, these bizarre flowers. It’s the gaudiest terrace in Belgravia.
The air is so much cleaner.
Sometimes they actually sparkle, with those little points on them, like a drawing in one of Peter’s books.
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Darkness and wind fading followed by trickling water of a small fountain shifts us to another locale
Patterns of leafy shadow are obviously not in Antarctica
You said you were going upstairs indicates the home of Scott and Kathleen
If he will get a chill in this location—nothing compared to the icy world he is exploring
The garden gives us a picture of home away from the ice
Birthday party hints of home
The air is still in this scene compared to the roaring wind elsewhere
It’s lovely out—obviously not in Antarctica in this moment
Goldfish-sculpture –flowers-gaudy terrace in Belgravia paints a picture of another world
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1
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6
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Kathleen
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I’m going back inside now, Con.
Come inside. Come to bed.
Will you be all right out here?
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Scott
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I’ve been happier here, I think, in this garden – than anywhere else in my life.
Every flower in its place, I suppose.
Well surely the press can see that, and the blessed British public. What in God’s name do they want from me? I’ve been there already.
Inside tonight at the party – it was full of ghosts, Kath.
Just now I have to fix this garden in my mind, every twig, every blade of grass.
Polar exploration
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SD
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It becomes quite dark..
The sound of crickets fades and is replaced by a soft wind.
They are hauling a sled
They begin to set up their camp for the night.
They put up a tent; they used a large pot on a small portable stove.
They sit on wooden crates, huddled close to the stove for warmth.
Oates and Bowers remain outside the tent.
They remove crates from the sled
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Bowers
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….making camp
Are you all right, Captain?
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Going back inside –refers to house rather than a tent---Also, come to bed
Will you be alright out here—out here is no challenge compared to the exploration
Garden-flowers-press and British public another world far away from the icy, barren world
Becomes quite dark-sled-cricket sounds fade-replaced by wind –sled-tent-pulls us back
We are back at the frigid, unfamiliar campsite
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7
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SD
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They examine the entire camp site, then scan the horizon. He circles the tent, pensively, and goes to the sled, pulling his mittens back on his balaclava, and straightening the scarf.
Inside the tent.
At the sled, Scott examines the supply boxes.
Scott takes the sextant from its case on the sled and moves briskly to Bowers.
Bowers puts aside his theodolite and begins to compute their location by sextant.
Oates sits on the sled. Inside the tent
-Outside the tent, Scott studies the distant horizon.
-Wilson and Evans turn toward stove; Outside of tent
-Bowers climbs on the crate to get a better view
- Wilson takes a leather-bound pad from sled…blows on his fingers.
-Oates and Bowers pack away the navigational instruments, after which they huddle together on the sled.
-Scott goes inside tent
-Outside the tent, Oates and Bowers drift to the sled.
-Oates and Bowers are silent and cold
-There is a sound of the wind
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BOWERS
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-Running water, plenty of shade, bit of a view.
-What’s the nicest thing you’ll remember about Antarctica?
-I like the way a day here takes a whole blessed year to go by.
-It’s daylight here for six months, right? A six-month day.
-For instance why the sunrise takes a week here.
-Why, blinking takes an hour and a half, and a man may piss for a month!
-Latitude eight-nine degrees, thirty-three minutes south. Longitude is still – a hundred and sixty – maybe fifty minutes east. Eleven and one-quarter miles exactly.
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OATES
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-You can’t get that in England
-Minus five point seven.
-And back to Three Degree Depot in five, or five-and-a-half.
-Perhaps it’s one solid flat sheet of glass.
-Perhaps he’ll skate to the Pole
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SCOTT
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-The seventy-sixth day of our journey.
-Only twenty-seven from the Pole
-The Pole inside of three
-Because they don’t belong here.
-The possibility of life in this place is more terrifying than the place itself.
-Can it be that we’re really here?
-You’ve been hauling that sled for six days
-Your hand is frostbitten
-You knew it wouldn’t have a chance of healing in this cold.
-Your hand is dead…Dead! It’s going to sell up and turn black and rot off your arm.
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WILSON
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-A fossil oak leaf.
-It seems there were seasons here once, real ones. It was autumn here once, and this leaf fell. As far as you could see, this was all woodland and savannah
-Sussex, Eddie
-It’s badly frostbitten
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Mittens-balaclava (Eskimo hat) , sled, blows his fingers, silent, cold and scarf refers to the miserably cold climate
Sound of wind
The way a day takes a whole year---We are unfamiliar with this idea of time in our world
Location—latitude eight-nine degrees, thirty-three minutes south—longitude is still a hundred and sixty- maybe fifty minutes east—eleven and one-quarter miles exactly (location)
Seventy sixth day of our j—badly frostbitten evokes danger of locale beyond our imagination
Three degree depot in five or six miles
Your hand is dead-due to climate of this place
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EVANS
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-It was when we shortened the sledge at the depot.
-After that I – kicked snow over the spots of blood so no-one would see.
-I wanted to go to the Pole.
-Well, it means a lot to the old ones back in Rhossily that I’d been chosen
-Captain
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8
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AMUNDSEN
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-Stormheads. I’ve never seen such clouds.
-This cold – so hard on a sick man.
-Snow blindness
-The sled weighs one thousand pounds already.
-Everything is a tool – a boot, a sled, a dog
-God, these winds.
-They come across five thousand miles, nothing to interest or slow them up along the way, for the simple pleasure of burning my face.
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SCOTT
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SD
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-Facing the tent
-loads supplies on sled
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The picture of stormheads and such clouds –cold—snow blindness with winds
All tools and resources are of utmost importance in this world
Five thousand miles-burning face paints a picture of horror and vast isolation
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