In Orson Welles’ ingenious adaptation of the famous novel by Herman Melville, a Shakespearean acting troupe works between performances of King Lear to create a play about Moby Dick. As the actors take up their new roles, the theater is transformed from a bare stage into the yardarms, sails, masts and deck of a ship hunting the great white whale. The actors provide the action-packed adventure, and the audience’s imagination provides the ocean, period costumes — and the whale.
Moby Dick–Rehearsed opens on Saturday, June 8 at 8 p.m. and continues through Sept. 29. Tickets range from $10 – $42; children 4 and under are free. Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum is located at 1419 North Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Topanga, midway between Malibu and the San Fernando Valley. For a complete schedule of performances and to purchase tickets, call 310-455-3723 or visit www.theatricum.com. Visit Theatricum on facebook: www.facebook.com/theatricum. Follow us on twitter: @theatricum and instagram: @theatricum_botanicum.
It’s definitely a piece of theatrical history and a curious attraction for theatre afficanados, but it is also very clear why the work is seldom performed.
With metatheatrical stage adaptations of literary classics almost as commonplace today as cell phones and email, Orson Welles’ Moby Dick — Rehearsed feels like it could have been written last week and not way back in 1955. It’s also as thrilling a production as I’ve seen at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum.
Even with the Theatricum's considerable playmaking resources and expertise, it's an underwhelming end to an epic tale. Kudos certainly to the Theatricum for taking us out to sea. Would that the waters were smoother.
It is not often that one’s imagination becomes an additional and necessary character during a performance, but that is the case in MOBY DICK – REHEARSED. For that reason, this play will be enjoyed best by those who have read the original novel. It is great fun and the actors do a superb job helping you believe that there’s a white whale lurking right behind you. It’s a satisfying piece of theater that makes you appreciate having read the novel back in high school.
One of the most outstanding aspects of this performance is the actors resourceful ability to draw on the audience’s imagination to create the set, whales, danger from the whales, ocean squalls and lightning, which is in no small part helped by the Sound Designer, Marshall McDaniel, and the Lighting Designer, Zach Moore.
Theatricum Botanicum’s stage comes alive with Ellen Geer’s configurations of bodies, rigging and narrative to make visceral the image of the fated whaling ship, Pequod, and Moby Dick, the Great White Whale in a recreation of Orson Welles’ imaginative retelling of the Melville Classic. In the last moments before Ahab (Gerald Rivers), the fanatical ship’s captain, is dragged into the sea, and Ishmael (Dane Oliver) must dangle above the ship’s flotsam as the ship breaks up, the scene springs into our imaginations through Geer’s careful staging. By the end of the final, stirring moments, you will swear you’ve been witness to a harrowing journey and a huge shipwreck!
The ensemble cast does an excellent job of gradually morphing into seafarers of the nineteenth century using anything at hand to make the journey real. MOBY DICK – REHEARSED is a rarely produced piece, a gem which highlights the talents of two giants, Herman Melville and Orson Welles. They may have been from different centuries, but they certainly spoke the same language.
Under the direction of Ellen Geer and choreographed by Dane Oliver, the production skillfully immerses the audience in life aboard ship. Fearful apprehension is relieved by song and dance, while the hunt that ensues when Moby Dick is finally sighted, is exhilarating and heartbreaking.
If the final product does not necessarily add up to all of its parts, the fault lies not with the acting company, but with the wild, somewhat indulgent vision of the original text by Orson Welles. In the end, when you combine the undeniable passion of Ellen Geer’s direction with the sweeping choreography of Dane Oliver, the originality and value of the production cannot be denied.
Theatricum Artistic Director Ellen Geer brilliantly directed and brought forth an intricate tapestry of rough-hewn men against the sea. By play’s end we will know them well and care about them as we witness celebratory rum revels, and their sheer bravery and determination to defy those events that would destroy them.
Today’s viewers are used to Computer Generated Images in big budget motion picture blockbusters - however, WGTB’s decidedly low tech but live “CGI” is far more exciting to behold.
Rehearsed’s grand finale, wreaking mayhem, is alone worth the price of admission and the sojourn to this theatrical enclave ensconced in the forest primeval north of Malibu. If you have to use a whaleboat and (like Orson - see below!) an ambulance, don’t miss this riveting revival of a play by a genius based on a novel by another genius. After all - All’s Welles that Melvilles.
The true director of Moby Dick—Rehearsed, Ellen Geer, does wonders with the operatic sweep of Melville’s story; in this she is aided by fight choreographer Dane Oliver and by Marshall McDaniel’s sound design and original music. Never has a typhoon at sea and a life-and-death battle between man and beast sounded so terrifyingly dramatic and real.
Ellen Geer once again takes on the director’s seat to present a play that is big in scope, complete with intense drama, full fledged action (thanks to Dane Oliver’s fight choreography), as well as offering a selection of sea chanties as its musical soundtrack performed for salt-air moodiness. Marshal McDaniel provides an original music score for these ditties showing itself off as the only way to feel the said saltiness of the ocean deep without using water for effeteness.
It’s definitely a piece of theatrical history and a curious attraction for theatre afficanados, but it is also very clear why the work is seldom performed.
With metatheatrical stage adaptations of literary classics almost as commonplace today as cell phones and email, Orson Welles’ Moby Dick — Rehearsed feels like it could have been written last week and not way back in 1955. It’s also as thrilling a production as I’ve seen at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum.
Even with the Theatricum's considerable playmaking resources and expertise, it's an underwhelming end to an epic tale. Kudos certainly to the Theatricum for taking us out to sea. Would that the waters were smoother.
It is not often that one’s imagination becomes an additional and necessary character during a performance, but that is the case in MOBY DICK – REHEARSED. For that reason, this play will be enjoyed best by those who have read the original novel. It is great fun and the actors do a superb job helping you believe that there’s a white whale lurking right behind you. It’s a satisfying piece of theater that makes you appreciate having read the novel back in high school.
One of the most outstanding aspects of this performance is the actors resourceful ability to draw on the audience’s imagination to create the set, whales, danger from the whales, ocean squalls and lightning, which is in no small part helped by the Sound Designer, Marshall McDaniel, and the Lighting Designer, Zach Moore.
Theatricum Botanicum’s stage comes alive with Ellen Geer’s configurations of bodies, rigging and narrative to make visceral the image of the fated whaling ship, Pequod, and Moby Dick, the Great White Whale in a recreation of Orson Welles’ imaginative retelling of the Melville Classic. In the last moments before Ahab (Gerald Rivers), the fanatical ship’s captain, is dragged into the sea, and Ishmael (Dane Oliver) must dangle above the ship’s flotsam as the ship breaks up, the scene springs into our imaginations through Geer’s careful staging. By the end of the final, stirring moments, you will swear you’ve been witness to a harrowing journey and a huge shipwreck!
The ensemble cast does an excellent job of gradually morphing into seafarers of the nineteenth century using anything at hand to make the journey real. MOBY DICK – REHEARSED is a rarely produced piece, a gem which highlights the talents of two giants, Herman Melville and Orson Welles. They may have been from different centuries, but they certainly spoke the same language.
Under the direction of Ellen Geer and choreographed by Dane Oliver, the production skillfully immerses the audience in life aboard ship. Fearful apprehension is relieved by song and dance, while the hunt that ensues when Moby Dick is finally sighted, is exhilarating and heartbreaking.
If the final product does not necessarily add up to all of its parts, the fault lies not with the acting company, but with the wild, somewhat indulgent vision of the original text by Orson Welles. In the end, when you combine the undeniable passion of Ellen Geer’s direction with the sweeping choreography of Dane Oliver, the originality and value of the production cannot be denied.
Theatricum Artistic Director Ellen Geer brilliantly directed and brought forth an intricate tapestry of rough-hewn men against the sea. By play’s end we will know them well and care about them as we witness celebratory rum revels, and their sheer bravery and determination to defy those events that would destroy them.
Today’s viewers are used to Computer Generated Images in big budget motion picture blockbusters - however, WGTB’s decidedly low tech but live “CGI” is far more exciting to behold.
Rehearsed’s grand finale, wreaking mayhem, is alone worth the price of admission and the sojourn to this theatrical enclave ensconced in the forest primeval north of Malibu. If you have to use a whaleboat and (like Orson - see below!) an ambulance, don’t miss this riveting revival of a play by a genius based on a novel by another genius. After all - All’s Welles that Melvilles.
The true director of Moby Dick—Rehearsed, Ellen Geer, does wonders with the operatic sweep of Melville’s story; in this she is aided by fight choreographer Dane Oliver and by Marshall McDaniel’s sound design and original music. Never has a typhoon at sea and a life-and-death battle between man and beast sounded so terrifyingly dramatic and real.
Ellen Geer once again takes on the director’s seat to present a play that is big in scope, complete with intense drama, full fledged action (thanks to Dane Oliver’s fight choreography), as well as offering a selection of sea chanties as its musical soundtrack performed for salt-air moodiness. Marshal McDaniel provides an original music score for these ditties showing itself off as the only way to feel the said saltiness of the ocean deep without using water for effeteness.
