You can see why the true-life story of the Helga Maria put playwright Bea Roberts in mind of an Ealing comedy. It is a tale of British pluck, high-seas adventure and small-town amateurism.
In 1991, a crew set off from Whitby to the Arctic island of Jan Mayen in an unseaworthy vessel. The purpose of their 3,000-mile voyage was to honour William Scoresby, a local navigator and inventor of the barrel crow’s nest (he also inspired the name of Lee Scoresby in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials.
Scoresby had made similar journeys to the Arctic in the 18th century and his modern-day acolytes, led by Captain Jack Lammiman, wanted to commemorate him with a plaque.
Their ambition was as bold as their ship was inadequate. As sailors, they had neither experience nor qualification. Among them were a vicar and two pensioners.
So far so funny but, as told here, there is little comedic about the journey itself. It is as tough and nerve-racking as it would be for any passengers. Forcing her characters to live at close quarters, the playwright creates the air of a sitcom, but at heart, The Whitby Rebels is about a group of misfits coming together to achieve the impossible.
And yet Roberts underplays the sense of a quest. She builds expectations by labouring the point about the poor state of the Helga Maria but when, despite the odds, the vessel reaches Jan Mayen, it is more anticlimax than achievement. Even the feted return to Whitby carries little emotional release.
That is partly because the characters, for all their eccentricity, have no influence on the plot: whatever they do, the ship is going to complete its round trip. Roberts toys with a theme about people living in the shadow of high-achieving predecessors, and she gives the crew some lively exchanges, but it is not enough to escape the inevitability of it all.
Still, director Paul Robinson stages a hearty production on an end-on set by Jessica Curtis that is all rigging, big skies and wood. The cast, led by Keith Bartlett as a grouchy and enigmatic Lammiman, give bright and spirited performances, even if the play sails too close to the shore.
• At Stephen Joseph theatre, Scarborough, until 2 November
