Fram | |
---|---|
Written by | Tony Harrison |
Date premiered | 10 April 2008 |
Place premiered | Royal National Theatre, London |
Original language | English |
Subject | Fridtjof Nansen's arctic exploration and campaigning for Russian famine relief |
Official site |
Fram (Norwegian for Forward) is a 2008 play by Tony Harrison. It uses the story of the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen's attempt to reach the North Pole, and his subsequent campaign to relieve famine in the Soviet Union to explore the role of art in a world beset by seemingly greater issues. It is named after Fram , the ship built for Nansen for his Arctic journey, and subsequently used by Roald Amundsen to reach the South Pole.
Fram received its premiere at the Olivier auditorium of the Royal National Theatre, London on 10 April 2008. [1] The National Theatre's production was directed by Tony Harrison and Bob Crowley; its cast included Jasper Britton as Nansen, Mark Addy as Hjalmar Johansen, Sian Thomas as Sybil Thorndike and Jeff Rawle as Gilbert Murray. [2]
The play starts in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey in London, where the ghost of Gilbert Murray enlists Sybil Thorndike to join her in his new play, Fram, at the Royal National Theatre. They travel from the Abbey to the theatre to begin the play, and it starts in the Arctic with Bob and his suicidal alcoholic companion Jeff trying to reach the North Pole.
It skips forward in time to after Bob and Jeff's record has been broken. In despair, Bob becomes desperate, and Jeff shoots himself. Bob then goes on to try to help the victims of the Russian famine, though he is haunted by the ghost of Jeff. Bob associates with Gilbert Murray and Sybil Thorndike in his attempts to support the work in helping the children in Russia.
Murray and Thorndike are returning to Poets' Corner where they are haunted by a muted Kurdish refugee poet (based on Abas Amini ). As he is about to ascend to the afterworld of the poets, Murray declares himself unworthy and storms off.
The play ends with Bob and Jeff describing the plight of two African refugees who died of cold aboard a plane.
There are many themes used in the play, most of which relate to modern day problems in the world.
The cast of the original National Theatre production:
The National Theatre production received generally unenthusiastic reviews.
The use of verse received criticism, with many reviewers lampooning it with their own attempts at doggerel. Rhoda Koenig wrote, “Since the play stands up for poetry in a world dominated by fact and image, it's unfortunate that Harrison's verse does not provide much evidence for the defence.” [3]
There was some admiration for the scope of the themes addressed. Heather Neill of The Stage wrote, “... no-one is in any doubt that serious issues are being addressed.” [4] Michael Billington commented, “It hardly makes for a coherent whole, but it has exciting moments and a wild madcap inventiveness...He has bitten off more than any single play can chew and, dramatically, there are dead patches. But I can forgive any play that aims high.”. [5] However, some reviewers found the play too long and self-indulgent. For example, The Daily Telegraph complained, “Harrison the director appears to have done nothing to curb Harrison the poet's intolerable logorrhea.” [6]
Many critics praised Sian Thomas's Thorndike. The Stage called it “a brilliant, brave, performance as a red-gowned Thorndike demonstrating the power of theatre to change minds by acting a starving Russian.”
The journal Arion published a critical appraisal by Rebecca Nemser describing Fram as "not just a play within a play, but a theater within a theater. Most of all, it is a poem about poetry." Nemser praises the play while recognising its problematic reception:
Doubt, in Nemser's view, lies at the thematic heart of the play. [7]
Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen was a Norwegian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He gained prominence at various points in his life as an explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and co-founded the Fatherland League.
The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international, non-governmental organization. It was founded in the UK in 1919, with the goal of helping improve the lives of children worldwide.
Fram ("Forward") is a ship that was used in expeditions of the Arctic and Antarctic regions by the Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup, Oscar Wisting, and Roald Amundsen between 1893 and 1912. It was designed and built by the Scottish-Norwegian shipwright Colin Archer for Fridtjof Nansen's 1893 Arctic expedition in which the plan was to freeze Fram into the Arctic ice sheet and float with it over the North Pole.
George Gilbert Aimé Murray was an Australian-born British classical scholar and public intellectual, with connections in many spheres. He was an outstanding scholar of the language and culture of Ancient Greece, perhaps the leading authority in the first half of the twentieth century. He is the basis for the character of Adolphus Cusins in his friend George Bernard Shaw's play Major Barbara, and also appears as the chorus figure in Tony Harrison's play Fram.
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There are no villains in the piece. Crime, like disease, is not interesting: it is something to be done away with by general consent, and that is all [there is] about it. It is what men do at their best, with good intentions, and what normal men and women find that they must and will do in spite of their intentions, that really concern us.
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