Into the dangerous waters of hubris

“Terra Nova” is a cold play -- and not only because it’s set in Antarctica.

Ted Tally’s examination of Robert Falcon Scott’s doomed 1912 attempt to become the first explorer to reach the South Pole is better at pointing out Scott’s tragic flaws than at establishing much sympathy for the man and his comrades.

From the beginning of the text -- and of Martin Benson’s staging at South Coast Repertory -- we know how Scott’s enterprise will end. There is no conventional suspense that might encourage us to root for these men. Instead, the play is a lesson in the folly of men’s hubris.

Tally was writing in particular of the hubris of pre-World War I Englishmen, but because he was an American writing in the mid-’70s (the play was first produced in 1977), perhaps he also was thinking of Vietnam and Watergate. To be sure, it’s not hard to find men in any age who are carried into dangerous waters by their own arrogance. Playwrights since the ancient Greeks have tackled this phenomenon.

Tally marshals impressive arguments to undermine Scott’s point of view. They are voiced by two figures who drift in and out of the explorer’s thoughts as he is trapped in raging blizzards, waiting to die.

The first is his arch-rival, the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, whose expedition reached the pole approximately a month before Scott’s. Unlike Scott, whose men hauled their own load, Amundsen used dogs to pull his equipment most of the way. As the provisions diminished, he slaughtered some of the dogs to provide extra food for his men. His men, if not his dogs, returned safe and sound.

Appearing in Scott’s reveries, Amundsen takes every opportunity to point out the shortcomings of Scott’s more gentlemanly approach. Actually, according to historical information in South Coast’s newsletter, Scott initially used ponies for the same purpose that Amundsen used dogs, but the ponies couldn’t do the job and were shot. Tally doesn’t address this fact, although it casts a considerably different light on Scott’s moral stance.

Even more devastating is the commentary by Scott’s wife, Kathleen (ardent Nina Landey), whom you might expect to be his most loyal supporter. In a scene that appears to be less of a dream and more of a flashback to their first serious conversation, Kathleen challenges Scott’s motives. She’s so unimpressed by his career that you wonder why she wants him to father her children -- and, later, why she declares she has fallen in love with him. Maybe absence made her heart grow fonder.

Perhaps in an attempt to explain her attraction to Scott, Benson cast Don Reilly as the 41-year-old explorer. Dashingly handsome, Reilly could pass for 31 -- which doesn’t help his delivery of lines in which he complains about his age. Generally, however, his look and bearing provide a degree of magnetism that helps compensate for Tally’s arsenal of arguments against Scott’s pride. And in Scott’s final moments, Reilly’s gloss is gone.

Preston Maybank’s Amundsen maintains a dark and rakish look, probably to provide more contrast to Scott.

The four actors who make up Scott’s crew are uniformly solid: Tony Ward as the wounded weak link; Michael James Reed as the only one who takes pleasure out of reaching the South Pole, even though he knows he’s not first; Chet Grissom as the jovial morale booster; and Robert Curtis Brown as the angriest and, ultimately, the most self-sacrificial.

Although we don’t know much about their pasts, they do stir up more sympathy than Scott ever does. In the absence of larger suspense over whether the expedition will survive, much of the play is taken up with the thorny question of how long Scott will allow Ward’s suffering character to go on.

Considering South Coast’s usual design prowess, the spectacle in “Terra Nova” is disappointing. The play’s published stage directions caution against a literal interpretation of the Antarctic landscape and ask for black and white photos “filling the entire back of the stage” at the beginning. But Angela Balogh Calin’s set features two half-hearted walls of ice, some ersatz snow and cautiously framed photos, as in a slide show.

John Philip Martin’s lighting should be more relentless in the scenes that take place outside Scott’s head. But Martin nails the moment when Scott’s men spot Amundsen’s flag at the pole. The sky lights up with intense, mortifying color.

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‘Terra Nova’

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Where: South Coast Repertory, Segerstrom Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2:30 p.m.; Sundays, 7:30 p.m.

Ends: Nov. 16

Price: $27-$55

Contact: (714) 708-5555

Running Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Don Reilly...Scott

Preston Maybank...Amundsen

Nina Landey...Kathleen

Chet Grissom...Bowers

Michael James Reed...Wilson

Robert Curtis Brown...Oates

Tony Ward...Evans

By Ted Tally. Directed by Martin Benson. Set and costumes by Angela Balogh Calin. Lighting by John Philip Martin. Music and sound by Michael Roth. Stage manager Randall K. Lum.