Stranded in an icy wasteland, their ship wrecked, supplies running out, morale perilously low: Split Knuckle Theatre’s “Endurance” compares corporate workers in today’s America to the men of a famously harrowing 1914-16 Antarctic expedition. Sounds about right.
But the play, now onstage at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, finds hope in the example of Sir Ernest Shackleton, who led his crew to survival against staggering odds.
“He said, ‘Optimism is true moral courage,’ ” says Greg Webster, who plays Shackleton and is also the New York-based company’s artistic director. “I am an Irish Catholic, glass-half-empty kind of guy. So to transform myself into someone who is always looking on the bright side of life was an incredible learning curve for me.”