{"id":14542,"date":"2019-12-13T08:22:45","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T13:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=14542"},"modified":"2019-12-13T08:52:04","modified_gmt":"2019-12-13T13:52:04","slug":"moby-dick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/12\/13\/moby-dick\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Ended Up In A Boat With Captain Ahab Chasing The White Whale In A.R.T.\u2019s \u2018Moby-Dick\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps I should have been mindful that stepping into any boat with Captain Ahab\u2014who doomed his crew via his maniacal pursuit of revenge upon the white whale that took his leg\u2014was likely to not turn out well. But there I was riding aboard a vessel with Ahab chasing some whale on the opening night of the\u00a0American Repertory Theater\u2019s world premiere production of Dave Malloy\u2019s musical adaptation of Herman Melville\u2019s 1851 novel \u201cMoby-Dick.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0(It\u2019s scheduled to run through Jan. 12 at the Cambridge theater.)<\/p>\n

How could I decline to accompany the accursed captain (played by Tom Nelis) when he singled me out from among the dozen or so audience members selected to join the cast on stage for the show\u2019s second act. He appointed the person, seated on the bench a couple spots down from me, as his first mate. The person next to me was named second mate. And me? \u201cScullery,\u201d he growled.<\/p>\n

\"American<\/a>
American Repertory Theater’s “Moby-Dick.” (Maria Baranova photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So I found myself attired in a red poncho, riding behind Ahab in a silly cartoon of a whaleboat (too short, too round, like a boat from a Disneyland ride) pushed about the stage by none other than the fellow called Ishmael (Manik Choksi). I watched as the crew harpooned the whale (a sculpture of plastic bottles forming the hump of its back) and (fake) blood sprayed across the stage. I was there as they carved up (foam) blubber from its back and someone splashed a bucket of (fake) blood down a grate in the ship\u2019s deck. The wooden deck of this Pequod curves up the back wall and ripples across the ceiling; its focal point a mast with two platforms\u2014at the very top are the masthead hoops, where crewmen scan the sea for whales.<\/p>\n

Before long I was at the center of the mist-filled stage. And there I was shaking Ishmael\u2019s hand and playing for the audience\u2019s laughter as we stirred and kneaded plastic tubs of (fake, I hope) whale spermaceti. The cast and audience volunteers joined hands in a circle and sang (something along the lines of) \u201cWith a squeeze of the hand I melt along with you.\u201d And my heart sang with kinship for my crewmates all riding this crazy (fake) ship on its opening night. It was swept up in the fun ride. And, despite all odds, I am escaped to tell thee the tale.<\/p>\n

\"Manik<\/a>
Manik Choksi as Ishmael and the company of American Repertory Theater’s “Moby-Dick.” (Evgenia Eliseeva photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But I carry with me sad tidings\u2014for all its ambition and its casting \u201cthe Pequod as the America I want to see,\u201d this campy, \u201cHamilton”-y, three-and-a-half-hour musical enactment of \u201cMoby-Dick,\u201d from the folks behind A.R.T.\u2019s 2015 production of \u201cNatasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812,\u201d is rife with flaws. The songs are mostly forgettable\u2014or silly: \u201cI don\u2019t want to sleep with a cannibal.\u201d (I\u2019m not sure how this jaunty tune\u2019s double-entendres of sharing a bed with a cannibal reflected the show\u2019s aim for a more enlightened, revisionist take on Melville.) The first act dawdles and drags. The staging and choreography feel too small, like too much standing around. The puppetry is too cautious, missing opportunities to conjure the leviathan to life.<\/p>\n

I really want to love this show, I want to be seduced by its intrepid, revisionist spirit, but…<\/p>\n

\"American<\/a>
American Repertory Theater’s “Moby-Dick.” (Maria Baranova photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It does have its moments. \u201cGod forbid I be a man, a fully fleshed out character,\u201d Fedallah (Eric Berryman), the mysterious, mystical harpooner whom Ahab has hidden from the crew, complains in a pointed monologue spoken directly to the audience. \u201cIt turns out history is fucked up everywhere. But America is a special kind of fucked up.\u201d<\/p>\n

He goes on to note: \u201cOh, Jesus, color-conscious casting. \u2026 Aggressively diverse casting. \u2026 Outstanding wokeness from a white writer and director of a musical.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard not to look around at this moment and suspect that the show has more folks of color on stage than in the packed audience.<\/p>\n

But Fedallah\u2019s speech remains the sharpest moment of the play\u2019s \u201cmusical reckoning\u201d with \u201cMoby-Dick.\u201d At one point, Ishmael quips \u201cNow we don\u2019t have to kill whales [for oil] anymore because we have fossil fuels\u201d and there are references to a \u201cswirling vortex of plastic trash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. \u2026 I don\u2019t think there is any getting away from all this.\u201d Another song includes the question, \u201cIs God even cisgender?\u201d And \u201cWhales don\u2019t have hate crimes.\u201d Too often the script settles for flippant asides rather than digging deep.<\/p>\n

\u201cFuck religion. Fuck America. Fuck y\u2019all,\u201d Fedallah, the prophet of the play, tells us. \u201c\u2026Part of me does want to see everything burn. \u2026 Let mankind be done. Annihilate. Whoosh.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/a>
Tom Nelis (left) as Ahab and Starr Busby as Starbuck in American Repertory Theater’s “Moby-Dick.” (Maria Baranova photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The show finally finds the emotion in the story at the very end of the second act, after Ahab has threatened the chief mate Starbuck (Starr Busby) with a pistol. (Though the show seems not to register that it feels considerably different when the mad white boss points his gun at a black female actor than at the white man in the original book. Also from here on, I\u2019m going to assume you\u2019re familiar with the broad outlines of the novel\u2019s plot\u2014so spoilers ahead.) Starbuck climbs up into the mast platform. \u201cTerrible and cruel old man, yet in his eyes I read a sadness,\u201d Starbuck heartbreakingly sings. \u201cGod, please help me help this man. I can\u2019t leave him. Something has tied me to this man. \u2026 I hope he never finds what he is looking for.\u201d Blackout, then intermission.<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/a>
Tom Nelis (from left), Manik Choksi, Andrew Cristi, and Dawn L. Troupe in American Repertory Theater’s “Moby-Dick.” (Maria Baranova photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But \u201cMoby-Dick\u201d loses its emotional connection again in the second half\u2014until the Pequod encounters another whaling ship called Rachel. \u201cHave you seen a whale boat adrift,\u201d the captain (Dawn L. Troupe) asks. \u201cYou must help us. We lost a whaleboat chasing Moby-Dick. \u2026 His hump dragged them away in the darkness.\u201d But Ahab only cares for pursuing the whale: \u201cNo, I won\u2019t do it. We have no time.\u201d Captain of the Rachel: \u201cMy boy, a little lad of 12 years old was among those he dragged away. \u2026 Let me charter your ship for 40 hours. I will pay.\u201d Ahab: \u201cNo, captain, I will not do it. He\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malloy and director Rachel Chavkin make an unfortunate habit of cutting away or disrupting scenes right as emotion is finally building.<\/p>\n

\"American<\/a>
American Repertory Theater’s “Moby-Dick.” (Maria Baranova photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, \u201cThar she blows,\u201d Ahab announces, quiet, awestruck. \u201cA hump like a snow hill. It is Moby-Dick.\u201d But the ensuing climactic chase is confusingly staged, not making it clear that they\u2019ve harpooned the whale. (Some puppetry could have really helped here.) The whale charges the ship, we\u2019re told, and drowns the crew.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all died,\u201d Ishmael says. \u201c\u2026I treaded water as the ship sank, kicked my leg, and kept afloat.\u201d He sits atop a shipmate\u2019s coffin until, he tells us, the sail of a ship appears above the horizon, then draws near. \u201cIt was the devious-searching Rachel that in her search for her missing children only found another orphan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Manik<\/a>
Manik Choksi as Ishmael in American Repertory Theater’s “Moby-Dick.” (Evgenia Eliseeva photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"J.D.<\/a>
J.D. Mollison in American Repertory Theater’s “Moby-Dick.” (Maria Baranova photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Morgan<\/a>
Morgan Siobhan Green as Pip in American Repertory Theater’s “Moby-Dick.” (Maria Baranova photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Andrew<\/a>
Andrew Cristi (from left), Manik Choksi, Ashkon Davaran, J.D. Mollison, and Matt Kizer in American Repertory Theater’s “Moby-Dick.” (Maria Baranova photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Andrew<\/a>
Andrew Cristi and the company of American Repertory Theater’s “Moby-Dick.” (Maria Baranova photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Andrew<\/a>
Andrew Cristi as Queequeg and Manik Choksi as Ishmael in American Repertory Theater’s “Moby-Dick.” (Maria Baranova photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Tom<\/a>
Tom Nelis (left) as Ahab and Starr Busby as Starbuck in American Repertory Theater’s “Moby-Dick.” (Maria Baranova photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"American<\/a>
American Repertory Theater’s “Moby-Dick.” (Evgenia Eliseeva photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps I should have been mindful that stepping into any boat with Captain Ahab\u2014who doomed his crew via his maniacal pursuit of revenge upon the white whale that took his leg\u2014was likely to not turn out well. But there I was riding aboard a vessel with Ahab chasing some whale on the opening night of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[455,42],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14542"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14580,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14542\/revisions\/14580"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}