An epic play, moving from today's Westminster Abbey to the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen's bid to make it to the North Pole on foot in the 1890s. Though he and his companion, Johansen, are incompatible, they share a bear fur sleeping bag through the long winter. Appointed to the League Of Nations, Nansen becomes the first celebrity figurehead, searching for a way to make people care about Russian famine relief in 1922.

Playwright Harrison is considered by many to be Britain's foremost theatre poet. His previous plays for the National Theatre include The Oresteia and The Trackers Of Oxyrhynchus. This is the world premiere of his new play.