The Frozen Deep- A play by Wilkie Collins (1824-1889)
The Charles Dickens connection Acting obsessed him ( Dickens) . He supported actors experiencing financial hard times and even dreamed of great actor Macready as his desirable double. John Glavin. The play referred to here was . 'The Frozen Deep' written by Wilkie Collins in 1853 with a certain input from Charles Dickens: Dickens also played one of the leading roles, that of Richard Wardour. Collins and Dickens had been literary associates and friends from 1851. Dickens expert, Michael Slater went as far as to describe this play as a "melodrama expressly written for Dickens and his amateurs." SLATER And the play was based on true events: In 1845 Captain Sir John Franklin of the Erebus accompanied by the Terror sailed from Greenhithe, Kent, to The Arctic in a bid to discover the north west passage through the icebergs and hazardous coast and islands off Greenland to reach the Pacific. The expedition ended in tragic