North Edinburgh Arts Centre, and touring 2006

Crowhurst. (Credit: Marc Marnie)

“YOU CAN choose to play this as tragedy or farce,” says the screen version of Donald Crowhurst to his theatrical self. The problem with John Harvey’s play in this disappointing Benchtours production is that it chooses neither tragedy nor farce.

In fact, it’s barely a play at all – just a very good idea for one. And the one-dimensional performance by Peter Clerke, under the direction of Pete Brooks and Catherine Gillard, makes it seem even more so.

At face value, it should have been riveting. The true-life story of Donald Crowhurst is rich in dramatic possibilities. He was the amateur yachtsman who, in 1968, set out from England in a bid to win the solo Golden Globe round-the-world yacht race.

With a mixture of arrogance and wishful thinking, he was convinced that his boat, equipped with the latest technology from his struggling electronics firm, was going to make him rich and famous.

But, rushed into production and inadequate for the task, the vessel quickly started to let him down. He couldn’t rely on the readings from his navigation equipment, the hull was not water-tight and the bilge pump didn’t work.

For many people, that would have been the end of it. But Crowhurst was a typically old-school-tie mixture of sporty ambition and emotional repression: giving in was not part of his make-up. Keeping up appearances and half-deceiving himself, he battled on regardless while firing off bogus reports of his incredible progress.

He couldn’t deny that the treacherous waters ahead would almost certainly kill him – if he even got that far – but he couldn’t let the world know he was a failure.

After eight months of deceit during which he took a short-cut across the Atlantic, he cut off radio contact and threw himself overboard.

That story in some form or other should have been intriguing enough to make you buy your tickets. Once in the theatre, however, you expect something more, be it suspense, metaphor or poetry.

Sadly, ‘Crowhurst’ gives us only what we already know and even the impressive soundtrack by Anthea Haddow and the video projections by John McGeoch can’t disguise a script and performance that fail to make dramatic capital from the material.

(Crowhurst can be seen at (Orkney Arts Theatre, Kirkwall, 27 March; Ardross Hall, 29 March; Craigmonie Centre, Drumnadrochit, 30 March; Birnam Institute, Dunkeld, 31 March; Community Theatre, Fortrose, 1 April)

© Mark Fisher, 2006

Link

• Benchtours