Polaris

Part of the Traverse’s innovative ‘Manipulate Festival of Visual Theatre’, young Czech company Wariot Ideal present Polaris. Polaris explores the experiences of two 19th century polar explorers, lost and freezing to death in the Arctic wilderness. The performance is a mixture of physical theatre, mime, film and sound design which plunges you into an icily bleak world where two men struggle to maintain their sanity and their friendship as they battle the unforgiving landscape.

The story cuts between scenes set in the Arctic, and the memories of the lives that the explorers have left behind, when they were proud heroes setting off to conquer mysterious lands, not shivering wrecks destroyed by isolation and fear.

There is no doubt that the actors (who also devised the show), Vojta Švedja and Jan Benes, are extremely talented. They brilliantly bring to life the creatures of the arctic in an performance that is half Frozen Planet, half Monty Python. We see them become comical frock coated penguins in front of our eyes, preening and flirting as they waddle across the ice. Next they're hungry flint eyed wolves and huge, cumbersome walruses. In one fantastically hallucinatory moment, the walruses' throaty moans sing along to a dance record.

Yet the show never seems to go any deeper than these entertaining vignettes, showing us beautiful imagery and movement but no emotional undercurrent to ground the performance. It's clear the explorers are suffering greatly, but as we never find out anything about their relationship or inner lives it is hard to connect with and care about them.

There are moments where the physical nature of the show takes flight, for example when the disappearing arctic sun is represented by a round glowing lamp slowly pulled across the stage, away from the two men who watch it go, weeping at the growing darkness. At such points we are able to feel the sheer inhumanity of the place, and sympathise with the plight of men who have fallen off the map into a frozen hell. The show transcends the need for dialogue and, like the best of physical theatre, it touches the audience in ways that words can’t. Unfortunately such moments are fleeting and the show returns to the dancing penguins and singing walruses; fever dreams which charm with their skill, but ultimately leave one cold.