FRAM takes us from a contemporary Westminster Abbey to the Arctic ship Fram – or Forward – specially built by the famous 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 the first celebrity campaign, searching for means, however shocking, to make people care.
Tony Harrison's previous work at the National includes The Mysteries, The Oresteia and The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus, which had its world premiere in the ancient stadium of Delphi. His many collections of poems include The Loiners (winner of the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize), v. (broadcast on Channel 4 in 1987, winning an RTS Award), The Gaze of the Gorgon (winner of the Whitbread Prize for Poetry) and Under the Clock.
Bob Crowley has designed over twenty productions for the National Theatre, most recently The History Boys (for which he won a Tony Award), His Girl Friday and Mourning Becomes Electra; recent work also includes Tarzan, Mary Poppins and The Year of Magical Thinking. -- www.nationaltheatre.org.uk
