The White Whale

Client: Slung Low

Writer: James Phillips

Director: Alan Lane

Music by Heather Fenoughty

4 Stars in The Guardian


Welcome to Slung Low’s latest adaptation of Melville’s Moby Dick:

You are given a set of headphones.

When you put them on you can hear all the actors like they’re whispering in your ear.

There’s music too, a soundtrack.

You take your place by the side of the canal and get ready to watch the action. It’s not just a play, it’s an adventure: and it’s happening right in front of you. Live.

In the future we hunt whales for the oil in their bodies. Just like they did in centuries past. The oil of a single whale can run an army for a week. This is new science. This is our future. So we send gangs of men out onto the dark, cold sea to bring back the things we need.

The crew of the Pequod are going to sea because it’s their job.

But Ahab, captain of the Pequod, is not going to sea for the oil or for the money.

Ahab is going for revenge.

Revenge on the vast whale that took him down into the black depths of the ocean.

Revenge on the greatest whale in all the oceans: a perfectly white whale.

And Ishmael, a young man new to whaling, he’s going to sea seeking a hunter’s violence.

And we are all going with them.

(From Slung Low’s site)