Like his muse, who ran away at fifteen to join the navy, AIDAN DOOLEY didnt stick to the safe option. From the Claddagh in Galway, he left a secure bank job to follow his dream. He kept the faith through his early struggles as a jobbing actor until Tom Crean changed his life. He has since toured his hugely successful solo show all over the world. A co-director of Play on Words Theatre Company, he lectures in drama at Canterbury Christ Church University.
Stay up to date with Aidan on his website,
www.tomcreanshow.com, and on
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AILEEN OBRIEN is an actor and writer, with family roots in Tipperary, whose theatre credits include the Royal Court and Londons National Theatre. She was captivated by Tom Creans story and Aidans mesmerising performance, so was delighted to collaborate with him on this account of his adventures on and off the stage.
W e Irish believe that our land is greener than anywhere else. Its obviously not, but still, we believe it. And it looked very green to me that autumn day when I arrived in Kerry at Farranfore Airport. There were no clouds as we flew in over Munster. I remember picking out the Knockmealdown Mountains, the MacGillycuddys Reeks, all the peaks I learned about at school. Home. I was going home; I was bringing Tom home. I have flown into Ireland hundreds of times but this felt different. I thought about all the people who were converging on Tralee, on their way to see me, actor Aidan Dooley, step into the mighty shoes of polar explorer Tom Crean. I was terrified. Who do you think you are? I asked myself.
I didnt even begin to suspect that this was the beginning of a journey that would last over a decade and take me all over the world. Since that weekend in Kerry in 2001, I have performed my show, Tom Crean Antarctic Explorer, in all sorts of places and spaces: in vast theatres and remote rural halls, in Dublin and Dubai, Australia and Antibes, off Broadway and on the Antarctic ice itself. And, of course, time and again Tom and I have returned to Ireland, where he has been given his due heros welcome by audiences up and down the country. It has been an extraordinary journey.
This is the story of me and Tom Crean, of how I came to write and perform the play that has changed my life, won an award or two, and of the adventures, challenges and people I have met along the way.
Like my show, this is, above all, a tribute to a remarkable polar explorer, the Kerryman who stood shoulder to shoulder with Scott and Shackleton on three legendary trips to the South Pole and performed feats of such courage and fortitude that they simply defy belief. This is for Tom Crean, a true Irish hero.
There are times, not yourselves now, mostly beyond, when I stand out here like this and many, no, most, dont know who I am, yet Ive been there three times. Ill ask, Have you heard of Captain Robert Falcon Scott? I tell you, a penny to a pound, most of em will nod the head, Oh yes, we heard of him. He only went twice! Ill then ask, Have you heard of Sir Ernest Shackleton? About three quarters will nod their head at him. Well, surely, surely, I say, you must have heard of Tom Crean? Arrgh They look at me like Ive got four heads. But tis my own fault, I never kept a diary: no diary forgotten. Between you and me, I had more things to be doing at minus 30 degrees centigrade than writing a flaming diary.
From Tom Crean Antarctic Explorer (Aidan Dooley)
A mid the stark, imposing landscape of the South Pole and Antarctic, there is both a mountain and a four-mile glacier bearing the name Crean. It was here that the son of a Kerry farmer distinguished himself as one of the great explorers of the Heroic Age, his name justly stamped forever on the unforgiving terrain that could not break him. But a hundred years later, this name was unfamiliar to most people. It certainly meant nothing to me when I first heard of Tom Crean.
It was early in the year 2000. I was working in Londons Science Museum as an actor doing live interpretations. This involved playing a character, historical or imagined, who would entertain and hopefully educate the visitors who strolled around the exhibitions. On this particular day I was just about to get into Edwardian costume to greet people as Victorian plumber Thomas Crapper and talk about my sanitary ware, as you do when youre a museum actor. My boss, Geraint, came to me and said that the Maritime Museum was staging a big exhibition the following year on polar explorers Scott and Shackleton and theyd found this fella, this Irish fella, who had gone to the Antarctic with both of them. His name was Tom Crean and he was one of the few men who had served under both Scott and Shackleton on their legendary polar expeditions: Scotts Discovery (19011904) and Terra Nova (1910 1913) expeditions and Shackletons Endurance (19141916) trip. As Geraint explained, the idea was to bring to life this unknown character, Crean, who would greet visitors and tell them about these polar expeditions while comparing the very different leadership styles of the two explorers: the buttoned-up, regimented approach of the Royal Navys Scott versus the more easy-going, approachable style of merchant-navy man Shackleton.
It sounded like an interesting idea, but there was just one small problem. While his famous bosses had whole libraries of books dedicated to them, there was barely a word written about Tom Crean. All the museum gave me by way of background information was three pieces of A4 paper with little snippets about him from the diaries of the men with whom he had journeyed to the South Pole. The Irish Giant, he was called.
Nevertheless, I managed, with fellow actor John Gregor, to put together about twenty minutes of a script. The first time I got into costume as Tom Crean and performed the script at the Maritime Museum, I didnt remember much of what wed written. I talked about how cold it was and the clothes we wore and I did a very short version of this very long 800-mile voyage when we were all in a boat and it was very tough but we did it, and thanks very much. The audience werent to know the nine minutes I gave them should have been twenty, and they went away happy.
Over the next six or seven months, I performed the Tom Crean character regularly at the Maritime Museum. I built up my knowledge of his three polar expeditions and would vary which one I put into the show, but mainly it was the two Scott trips, as they could be told more succinctly and fitted more easily into my short time slot. Although the original brief was to compare the leadership styles of Scott and Shackleton, I didnt make this the central focus of the piece. Instead, I concentrated more on putting the Antarctic in context for those who knew nothing about it for example, how the men coped in temperatures of minus 40 C. It was going down well with visitors and I was enjoying playing Tom. But it wasnt until a few months later, when I read a copy of Michael Smiths excellent book An Unsung Hero
