Tom Crean – Antarctic Explorer written and performed by Aidan Dooley premiered in 2003 at The New York International Fringe Festival, 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 for London’s National Maritime Museum’s Antarctic Exhibition ‘South’ in 2001. Following the publication of Michael Smith’s book about Tom Crean called ‘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.
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 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 ‘Outstanding Solo Performance’ at that years’ 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 seasonfollowed the 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 3Olympia Theatre, before travelling to the Adelaide Fringe Festival Australia, via seasons in Florida, Vermont, Malta, Dubai and Geneva. It then returned to the USA to play an eight week sell-out season at the Award Winning Irish Repertory Theatre in New York, returning to the UK for a four week tour.
2008 saw the production receive its London premier at the New End Theatre, where it played for six weeks to capacity houses and was awarded the ‘Time Out’ Critics Choice. It then returned to Dublin for a third sell-out week engagement at the 3Olympia Theatre which, by popular demand, then transferred to the Gaiety Theatre Dublin, for a further two weeks.
From 2009 the show continued to tour extensively both in Ireland and internationally. In 2013, the show had its first tour of N.Ireland, its sixth visit to the 3Olympia Theatre, and completed an Irish tour including Cork’s Everyman Theatre for the eighth time. In 2014 the show was seen in New Zealand at the International Arts Festival and in 2015 & 2017 returned ‘by popular demand’ to tours of UK and Ireland. 2018 saw the show in Luxembourg and the beautiful Gaiety Theatre. It now returns again to 3Olympia Theatre in 2023 for a summer run.