SHACKLETON’S CARPENTER
Devonshire Park Theatre
Thursday 20 – Saturday 22 November, 7.45pm
Saturday 22 November, 2.30pm
Eastbourne was first port of call for the ill-fated Endurance
One hundred years after Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance docked at Eastbourne, the ill-fated expedition’s remarkable story of survival in the Antarctic is remembered in Shackleton’s Carpenter which plays the Devonshire Park Theatre from Thursday 20 – Saturday 22 November.
The Endurance, which had set out to be the first ship to cross the Antarctic continent, stopped at Eastbourne’s pier on the 4 August 1914. Malcolm Rennie (Mr Selfridge), who plays Harry McNish, the carpenter and shipwright of Endurance, said Eastbourne was the ship‘s first port of call and was warmly welcomed by thousands of people owing to Shackleton’s huge popularity as a famous explorer.
The ship continued to Plymouth on 5 August, from where it sailed on to Buenos Aires and the Antarctic, where it became trapped in ice floes and was eventually destroyed, stranding the entire crew.
McNish was credited with skilfully modifying a small boat that allowed Shackleton and five men to sail hundreds of miles to fetch help for the rest of the stranded men in a truly remarkable story of survival. Shackleton’s Carpenter looks at McNish’s fraught relationship with the explorer. What caused him to go head to head with the Shackleton? And how did he eventually come to terms with it, alone and destitute on the wharfs in Wellington, New Zealand?
Shackleton himself eventually settled in Eastbourne and lived at 14 Milthorpe Road from 1916 until his death in 1922. A blue plaque has been erected at this address. Shackleton’s Carpenter is by Gail Louw whose previous plays include Blonde Poison which won an Argus Award at the Brighton Festival in 2012. Her recent play Duwayne won Best New Play at the Brighton Fringe Festival 2014.
To learn more about Harry McNish’s incredible story, catch Shackleton’s Carpenter at the Devonshire Park Theatre, Thursday 20 – Saturday 22 November, 7.45pm, Saturday Matinee, 2.30 pm. Tickets £13.50, concessions available. To book call the box office on 01323 412000 or online www.eastbournetheatres.co.uk.
