Mawson’s Providence

The heroism of the Antarctic explorer, Douglas Mawson, is characteristic of the pursuit of glory and adventure in a period when it was natural for men to put themselves through extraordinary and trying physical tests. The visceral nature of the performance effectively conveys the enormous physical toll of his explorations but Mawson’s journey is also portrayed as a profoundly psychological trial where the demands on his psyche were equally exhausting.

Tamblyn Lord bears an uncanny resemblance to Mawson and evokes this historical figure in a manner that renders them both quite ethereal. Mawson is frequently hovering on the brink death and the precarious threshold of this existence is the realm of this play. In reality Lord shares Mawson’s pioneering spirit and their mutual passion for testing their endurance of extreme environmental conditions is indulged fully.

The text is inspired by Mawson’s magnificent poetic language and seems to gently waft from the pages of his journals and reports of his expeditions. The characters that accompany him on his real and imagined travels are conjured up with remarkable energy, and the production draws on beautiful sounds, images and music of a bygone era to fully capture his spirit. Whilst the account can appear to be somewhat rudderless, it also allows for the hallucinatory quality of his thoughts and feelings to fill every inch of the stage.

Patricia Di Risio