Last night we went to see the latest Teatro Morlacchi production in the 2007/08 show subscription. At the beginning of the year, we chose 5 shows we wanted to see, then the sixth one was mandatory, and this was it.
Quite frankly, I was *not* looking forward to it. I despised "Moby Dick" when I read excerpts of it in high school, and I despised it again when I was forced to painstakingly make my way through it in my 19th Century American Literature course in college. And so I was pleasantly surprised last night, I'm happy to report.
Despite a stand-in reader for the role of Ishmael (befor the show, they announced that the main actor had been in a car accident!), the actors were very good. The adaptation ingeniously filled the spots of Melville's minute descriptions with sign language: the actors recounted many of the tales of the 'Pequod' and its crew with elegant hand gestures and quiet whistles and music. The stage was stark and the only mark of color was the blood red velvet coat of Captain Ahab and the Captain of the 'Rachel' and the red wine the mates drink on board.
Overall, I'll give it one and a half thumbs up. After all, it's not their fault that I hated the book!
Side note: I totally never knew that "Starbucks" got its name from the first mate of the 'Pequod.' I kept being pulled back to reality, every time they mentioned his name on-stage.
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