Do Not Go Gentle

An all-star cast – Peter Carroll, Vanessa Downing, John Gaden, Josh McConville, Philip Quast, Marilyn Richardson and Brigid Zengeni – joins forces with STC Associate Director Paige Rattray to tell this lyrical and moving story of resilience in the face of insurmountable adversity. This is a modern Australian classic written by a true iconoclast, Patricia Cornelius.

Do Not Go Gentle follows Robert Scott’s historic attempt to reach the South Pole. Battered by screeching winds and blinded by snow, each member of the expedition must face their own fears and failings, as well as hunger, exhaustion and cold that defies imagination. All the while, a shadowy presence pursues them, barely visible on the horizon.

But all is not as it seems in the frozen wasteland, as beneath the blasted Antarctic landscape another story entirely is lying in wait. As the party draws ever closer to their impossible goal, another world becomes visible through the cracks.

Patricia Cornelius’ remarkable career has seen her receive countless awards including the Patrick White Playwrights Award, the NSW Premier’s Literary Award and the Windham Campbell Literature Prize. Now, she brings her unflinching honesty to bear on a moving exploration of human frailty at the ends of the Earth. Like the Dylan Thomas poem that inspired its title, Do Not Go Gentle is a magnificent ballad to the fleeting and precious nature of life.