Written and performed by Aidan Dooley, Tom Crean – Antarctic Explorer premiered at The Medway Fuse Festival and then The New York International Fringe Festival in August 2003, where it won the Best Solo Performance Award.
In the same year, the show played the Dublin Fringe Festival, where it picked up a Best Actor Nomination.
The show originated from a fifteen-minute Living History performance on Tom Crean created by Aidan for London’s National Maritime Museum’s Antarctic Exhibition South in 2001. Following the publication of Michael Smith’s book about Tom Crean, entitled Unsung Hero, the show was developed over a two-year period with several small try out performances in Ireland, including a performance in front of Crean’s remaining family at the Tom Crean Society’s memorial in Annascaul.
The Teaser Trailer for the upcoming residency at the stunning @3olympiatheatre 🇮🇪#irishtheatre #historicaltheatre #internationaltour #amazingstories #explorer #tomcrean #irishheroes #irishhistory🍀 #irishhistory #exploration #antarctica #shackleton pic.twitter.com/Fm8IxOo7r4
— tomcreanshow (@tomcreansho) July 17, 2023
Between 2004 and 2005, the show toured to over 30 venues across Ireland, and also played two sell- out seasons at the Northern Stage Theatre in Vermont, USA.
2006 saw the show return to the USA, playing a sell-out three-week season at The Sugan Theatre at Boston Centre for the Arts, where the show was nominated for an Outstanding Solo Performance Award at that year's Elliot Norton, Boston Theatre Critics Awards. The show then returned to Ireland to play the first of two sell-out, five week seasons at Andrews Lane Theatre Dublin, the second season following a triumphant success at the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where the show won a Fringe First Award.
In 2007, after its sell-out success at the Brighton Festival, the show returned to Ireland to play two capacity weeks at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre, before travelling to the Adelaide Fringe Festival Australia, via seasons in Florida, Vermont, Malta, Dubai and Geneva. It then went back to the USA to play an eight week sell-out season at the Award Winning Irish Repertory Theatre in New York, before returning to the UK to complete a four-week UK tour.
2008 year saw the production receive its London premier at the New End Theatre, where it played a six-week limited run to capacity houses and got awarded the Time Out Critics Choice before returning to Dublin for a third sell-out week engagement at the Olympia Theatre which, by popular demand, then transferred to the Gaiety Theatre Dublin for a further two weeks.
Since 2009, the show continued to tour extensively both in Ireland and Internationally.
It was seen in New Zealand at the International Arts Festival. In 2015, 2017 and 2019 it returned ‘by popular demand’ to Ireland and UK. Since 2020, Covid has enforced the show being ‘rested’ like the rest of us but now in 2023 it was seen in Vancouver last month and now comes home to the 3Olympia in Dublin for a sixth residency with a 2-week run.
The show then tours Ireland and UK to finish the year.
85 years after his passing, Tom Crean's journey continues...
The 20th Anniversary production of Tom Crean - Antarctic Explorer is at the 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin from 25th July to 5th August 2023, before touring nationwide - find out more here.
