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"This epic sweep of a play takes us from a contemporary Westminster Abbey to the Arctic ship Fram – or Forward – specially built by Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen who, with his suicidal companion, Johansen, makes a bid on foot for the North Pole in the 1890s. Though incompatible, they share a bear fur sleeping-bag through the long winter. Nansen, still haunted by Johansen’s ghost is appointed to the League of Nations. As a figurehead of Russian famine relief in 1922, he conducts show more the first celebrity campaign, searching for means, however shocking, to make people care. Fram premiered at the National Theatre in April 2007." show less

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This play has a lot in it -- Nansen's bid for the north pole, his humanitarian work, questions of translation of Greek drama, migration and climate change. The central theme holding much if this together is the effectiveness of language versus image in conveying extremes of human endeavour and suffering. (There is an irony here in my reading the book rather than seeing the play on stage!).

There is a danger in including too much, I'm uncertain whether I would have found it too much had I not already an interest in Nansen. Certainly the details and cross-associations are very enjoyable, even if the hanging- togetherness of the whole may not suit some.

I was unaware of this play until I saw it at the bookshop of the Fram Museum, and I feel show more it is deserving of wider readership than the two LibraryThing members who currently own it! show less

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52+ Works 923 Members
Tony Harrison is the acclaimed author of numerous poems for the stage, screen, & television. His most recent volume of work is "Laureate's Block & Other Occasional Poems". He lives in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. (Bowker Author Biography)

Classifications

Genre
Fiction and Literature
DDC/MDS
822.914Literature & rhetoricEnglish & Old English literaturesEnglish drama1900-1900-1999 20th Century1945-1999
LCC
PR6058 .A6943 .F73Language and LiteratureEnglishEnglish Literature1961-2000
BISAC

Statistics

Members
7
Popularity
2,744,652
Reviews
1
Rating
(4.00)
Languages
English
Media
Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
3