Last summer, MORE Theater/S.B., a site-specific drama company devised by artistic director Meg Kruszewska, premiered their first production: Part I of The Whalers’ Triptych. This trio of dramatic representations offers a view of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick through the lens of characters beyond Ishmael.
“When I originally conceived of The Whalers’ Triptych as a series of plays, I wanted to explore the peripheral characters in Moby-Dick,” says Kruszewska. “My academic background is in feminist methodologies, [so] I know how to excavate the voices of the ‘other.’”
In the case of The Whalers’ Triptych, these characters include chowder-house matron and widow of the sea Mrs. Hussey; crazed anti-hero Captain Ahab; and, in the forthcoming third installment, the indigenous harpooners who worked the Pequod.
This summer’s chapter, called Ahab’s Fable, is written by Catt Filippov and directed by Ford Sachsenmaier. The story was born from Kruszewska’s fascination with obsessive personalities. While the voice of Ahab, a character who has become a symbol of ill-fated preoccupation, is featured in the novel, this version of the story illuminates the captain’s interiority. “Filippov has done a remarkable job of carving and shaping pieces of Melville’s text into these incredible speeches for Ahab,” says Sachsenmaier. “She’s created an entirely new character, one greatly inspired by the Ahab of the novel, but who also exists outside of the boundaries and limitations of that character.”
Ahab will be played by area actor Stanley Hoffman, who brings to the show what Sachsenmaier calls “an acute honesty … a kind of dogged vulnerability that keeps the show anchored in a place of real emotional truth. He’s the key to Ahab’s humanity.”
The show will run at the Community Arts Workshop (613 Garden St.), which will be transformed into the universe of the white whale by visual artist Moxie Bright Evan. See the show August 12–15; evening shows and matinees available. For tickets and information, see moretheatersb.com.
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