A chilling production A chilling production (March 28, 2003)

Bus Barn's 'Terra Nova' dramatically recreates an Antarctic tragedy

by Laura Reiley

B eck Weathers has been hot and heavy on the distinguished lectureship circuit since his ill-fated Mount Everest climb in the spring of 1996. Left for dead, snow blind and severely frostbitten, he somehow made it back down to safety. Nine climbers perished during this expedition.

And what does Weathers have to say that has made him so much in demand? Essentially, it's "I survived." But more than that, people are fascinated by what lessons one learns when pitted against a merciless Mother Nature. Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air," David Breashears' "High Exposure" and so many other recent popular books have told the stories of people surmounting great physical and psychological challenges -- the triumph of the human spirit over the forces of nature.

This is nothing new. Artic and Antarctic exploration captured the imagination of armchair voyagers for more than a century for just this reason. In 1905, explorer Robert Falcon Scott moved a brisk 3000 copies of his two-volume "Voyage of the Discovery," and here's the kicker -- he and his buddies Edward Wilson and Ernest Shackleton didn't even make it to the South Pole. Snow blindness and scurvy messed up their plans.

Seven years later, Scott, Wilson, Edgar Evans and Lawrence Oates finally did indeed reach the South Pole. Then they all died on the return trip, their bodies not discovered until that November, along with Scott's trip journal and letters.

Playwright Ted Tally (perhaps best known for his ghoulish screen adaptation of "The Silence of the Lambs") took Scott's diary as a jumping-off point for "Terra Nova," a drama chronicling the expedition. And Bus Barn Stage Company has elegantly brought this Antarctic tragedy home to Los Altos. Veteran director David Kurtz has a difficult task in the play, which follows the hopeless tale of five manly men dying slowly in a world of white. We know the outcome at the start, but still Kurtz and cast manage to create visceral dramatic tension that builds during the two acts.

It helps that set designer Leigh Henderson and sound designer Brooks White have fashioned a world that is utterly plausible. The sound of wind whips relentlessly; white draperies are arrayed like icebergs, little risers are fringed with "ice" ruffles and the stage's surface is painted with cold blues and whites to simulate shallow snow drifts rippling along sheets of ice. It drops more than 80 degrees in that theater (don't worry, I mean that metaphorically -- although the power of suggestion is strong and you might want to bring a sweater), and all that iciness pulls at your soul.

The Antarctica of "Terra Nova" is a depressing, inhospitable place. But it is here that Scott, Bowers, Wilson, Oates and Evans are at their best -- courageous but tender, self-sacrificing but self-reflective, utterly unflinching. They are wind-burned and frostbitten, swaddled ineffectually against the elements, but persevering for what they see as the betterment of the world (and maybe a little fame).

But Scott is not alone with his men down there. He is haunted by Roald Amundsen (played with an ominous Svengali-like glee by John Aney), a Norwegian explorer who, with a team of four men, reached the South Pole a month earlier than Scott on Dec. 14, 1911. Amundsen discovered a quicker route that took only 57 days, planted a Norwegian flag at the pole and hightailed it out of there for the Bay of Whales.

But he's back in the haunted mind of Scott, as the Englishman (performed with great nuance and charisma by Craig Lewis) wrestles with the choices he has made and the difficult decisions he has yet to make. And this "ghost" must share Scott's ear with another, Scott's wife Kathleen (Shannon Zeig). Together, Kathleen and Amundsen question Scott's motivation for the trip, his preparation and his leadership -- Evans (Jesse Tallyen) is the first to die, but soon the remaining men realize they are doomed themselves. First macho soldier Oates (played by hunky Charles McKeithan), then chirpy Bowers (veteran Bus Barner Michael Afendakis) and stalwart Wilson (John Baldwin) go. And as Amundsen explains to Scott just before Scott himself dies, all of this zeal for world exploration amounts to not much.

"The world is a smaller place, but not a more neighborly one," he says as Scott nears his end. It is a poignant sentiment during these difficult times, but perhaps it is this desire to make the world a kinder place that has motivated Scott, Weathers and countless other intrepid adventurers throughout time.

What: Bus Barn Stage Company presents Ted Tally's "Terra Nova"

Where: Bus Barn Stage Company, 97 Hillview Ave., Los Altos

When: "Terra Nova" runs through April 19. Performances will be held Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m. on April 6 and 13.

Cost: Tickets are $20 Thursdays through Saturdays; $17 on Sundays.

Info: Call the Box Office at (650) 941-0551 or visit www.busbarn.org.