Moby Dick at Malvern Theatres Review
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Tue 11 Jun 2024 - Sat 15 Jun 2024
You could almost taste the saltwater of the ocean in this new visceral production of Moby Dick. The iconic story has been recreated by Simple 8 theatre company and I caught its UK tour at
Malvern Theatres , where it stays until Saturday, June 15.
There's a stark stage with scaffolding dismantled on the floor as it opens with that infamous line 'Call me Ishmael'. Soon the set will cleverly be transformed to loosely resemble the Pequod ship's hull for the doomed journey to the high seas with whalers confounded by the great white whale Moby Dick.
There will be plenty more delightful creativity to come including recreating the shape of a whale using pieces of wood, as shown below. Lanterns and candles flicker adding moodiness and unease to Herman Melville's famous tale.
What makes this new production different is that it's gently musical too, but in a very natural and fitting way. There are actors playing instruments and singing melancholy, soulful sea shanties. Violins, drums and percussion add a subtle, soothing soundtrack.
Simple8, which has produced this show with Royal and Derngate Northampton, has already won a smattering of awards for its creativity and skill to reimagine "worlds out of nothing". The theatre company has become a force to be reckoned with in using live music, songs, puppetry and mime and this new version of Moby Dick reinforces the crew's inventiveness.
It's a fairly long time before Captain Ahab appears and he's ominously heard before he's seen. The one-legged protagonist, chasing revenge for losing his limb to Moby Dick, is believably haunted in the performance by Guy Rhys.
Mark Arends is suitably nervy as Ishmael with Hannah Emanuel giving a sterling performance as reliable Starbuck. The play has a decent tempo to start with as characters develop clearly.
The finale before the interval is particularly good as the crew rows out to catch a whale. It's interesting how views will have changed since this book was written in 1951 and rather than feeling in awe of the mammal being caught, the symbolic scenes feel horrific, especially as blood red confetti scatters across the stage.
After the interval, the story feels much slower and could have been done with an uplift to the tempo. The fear on board isn't as heightened as it could be and Ahab doesn't seem quite tormented or obsessed enough with his nemesis.
Director Jesse Jones does the right thing in never trying to visualise Moby Dick. What goes unseen is more terrifying than what they could have created.
This creative and visual
Moby Dick is a skillfully crafted production that makes you feel out among the water in a chase we know can never be won.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Moby Dick UK tour continues at
Malvern Theatres until Saturday, June 15.
The tour is then at Oxford Playhouse from June 18 to June 22.
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288251 - 2024-06-12 08:17:44