Review: Moby Dick (Touring)

Thursday, 6th June 2024 at York Theatre Royal

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Vengeance is a powerful force, and Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby Dick provides a dramatic picture of blind obsession, seeing Captain Ahab hunt the whale who devoured his leg. Sebastian Armesto has adapted the lengthy novel for the stage, condensing the tale into under two hours of stage time.

In all honesty, I didn’t get on much with the novel, but I was intrigued to see how the tale would fare on stage. This isn’t the easiest story to tell and the cast do well to conjure a sense of action and danger as the ship prowls the ocean in search of the “demon” whale…

Mark Arends is sincere and uncertain as Ishmael, who finds himself aboard Ahab’s ship thanks to his perfect harpoon skills. He’s joined by Tom Swale’s Queequeg, who navigates famed British ignorance well and provides both a comic edge and a gentle, nurturing influence.

Guy Rhys makes for a powerfully driven Captain Ahab whose desire for vengeance holds fast in the face of all barriers, while Hannah Emanuel’s Starbuck provides a desperate, principled voice of reason which goes unheeded – and unfortunately thanks to some sound issues, that proves as true for the actor as the character.

The central focus of Kate Bunce’s set design is, naturally, wooden planks and metal framing, used to suggest boarding house and ship at will. While I’m all for innovative black box staging or rustic frameworks, I do think this story needs a few more bells and whistles to really bring it to life – when the story itself feels laboured and doesn’t allow for much connection with any one character, it ends up feeling underwhelming. So while the cast do a great job of suggesting action and incredible sights through dialogue, they don’t manage to inspire much attachment.

Jess Jones’ direction brings the high emotions centre stage and does well to transport us back in time, using sea shanties (Composer and musical director: Jonathan Charles) for smooth segues between scenes. But while the shanties are engagingly functional, they lack the musical depth I was looking forward to (Fisherman’s Friends and The Last Ship are surely to blame for this desire to have beautiful harmonies aplenty). It’s not really until the final song, full of feeling, that the beauty of the music is felt and that is largely down to William Pennington, who boasts a great voice (and an intimidating edge as Stubb).

All in all, I’d say this production does a good job of bringing a tricky tale to the stage. If you’re hoping to have this production open your eyes to the admiration the novel inspires, I can’t promise it will – but if you’re a fan of the novel already, this is probably one worth seeing.

Moby Dick is continuing its tour until June 22nd 2024.