Festival Theatre, Malvern – until 15th June 2024
Reviewed by Courie Amado Juneau
5*****
Moby Dick was first published as a novel in 1851. A cautionary tale about the self destruction that inevitably comes from being blinded by revenge – perhaps it should be essential reading for all country leaders upon election (or re-election). Adapted by Sebastian Armesto, I’ve not read the original so cannot say how faithful it was but this is a corker that fizzes along at a fair old lick.
The stage was shrouded in enough smoke to justify a 1970’s Hammer Horror, the lighting also adding to the atmosphere, piquing the interest. And then – “Call me Ishmael” – unfamiliar as I was with the work, I knew the opening line. That’s the thing with this work – you know it, you know lines from it, without knowing that you know it. It’s embedded in our culture (“there she blows” is another one you’ll recognise).
The entire cast were fabulous, bringing an impressive energy with tons of physicality as you would expect from the tale of life on board a whaling ship. There was dancing, deck swabbing and merriment aplenty but the drama really took off when hunting the whales, with a visceral realism that was breathtaking.
I will specially mention some actors who (for their time on stage together) produced intense performances… Ishmael (Mark Arends) and Queequeg (Tom Swale) made a very likable couple of unlikely friends who were, nonetheless, thoroughly convincing and rather touching. Starbuck (Hannah Emanuel) and Capt. Aheb (Guy Rhys) gave us a very different dynamic; more distant as befitting their status and more confrontational too as Starbuck tries to pull Ahab back from the brink of his destructive course. All of this was handled with commendable empathy thanks to Director Jesse Jones.
The whole production was thoroughly enhanced by the live music on stage. The sea-shanty’s sounded authentic (I’m not sure if they were, which shows how convincing the music was). Jonathan Charles is billed in the programme as Composer, Musical Director and onstage musician so I’m giving a rousing three cheers for his work! Hazel Monaghan and William Pennington were the other multi-instrumentalist musicians, producing an enormous range of emotions and effects (wind, filmic atmospherics to tingle the spine, storms etc). Wonderful.
The set was an ingenious, stark construction in wood and scaffolding. With the addition of some well placed (and timed) ropes, barrels and planks it all added to the storytelling and fleshing out the scenes.
In many ways it’s an apocalyptic work but it’s never depressing or downbeat. Sadness and loss are handled with great sensitivity, as is the killing of a whale – the actual point of the Pequod’s voyage, it was inevitable that this would be a feature. The journey (no pun intended) of the crew under Ahab’s leadership is something that could easily be overblown and become pantomimic but this production was crafted with a realism, sensitivity and a charm that does the fabulous Simple8 theatre group immense credit.
Powerful (at times shocking) stuff that packed a punch without being gratuitous, this was a stunning production that was thought provoking and entertaining in equal measure. I very much look forward to Simple8’s next production and encourage you all to catch this one while you can. Highly recommended.