Theatre review: Shackleton, The Factory, Sligo

Blue Raincoat’s new play provocatively commemorates one of the most celebrated tales of the age of polar exploration. Precisely 100 years ago, Ernest Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, was trapped and destroyed by pack ice in the Antarctic, prompting a daring escape and rescue attempt by Shackleton and a small handful of his crew.

In staging these events, director Niall Henry’s most daring move is to take this epic saga and make it small. Telling the story with miniature boats, some of which are animated by rod-puppetry, he finds a scale that — far from diminishing the experience of Shackleton and his cohorts — actually magnifies it in all its raw intensity.