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Moby Dick - Rehearsed
Melodrama
12m, 2f An ingenious idea is employed to accommodate the sweep of this classic story on the stage. A Shakespearean company puts down their rehearsal sides of Lear and curiously take up those of a new play entitled Moby Dick . On the rehearsal stage of platforms, the teasers overhead suddenly become yardarms with sails and a tall ladder becomes a mast. The platforms become the decks of the ship on which the cast sails through the storms and tribulat
12m, 2f An ingenious idea is employed to accommodate the sweep of this classic story on the stage. A Shakespearean company puts down their rehearsal sides of Lear and curiously take up those of a new play entitled Moby Dick . On the rehearsal stage of platforms, the teasers overhead suddenly become yardarms with sails and a tall ladder becomes a mast. The platforms become the decks of the ship on which the cast sails through the storms and tribulat
- GenresPlays
76 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1965
3 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
About the author
Orson Welles
221 books207 followersGeorge Orson Welles, best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio. Noted for his innovative dramatic productions as well as his distinctive voice and personality,
Welles is widely acknowledged as one of the most accomplished dramatic artists of the twentieth century, especially for his significant and influential early work—despite his notoriously contentious relationship with Hollywood. His distinctive directorial style featured layered, nonlinear narrative forms, innovative uses of lighting such as chiaroscuro, unique camera angles, sound techniques borrowed from radio, deep focus shots, and long takes.
Welles's long career in film is noted for his struggle for artistic control in the face of pressure from studios. Many of his films were heavily edited and others left unreleased. He has been praised as a major creative force and as "the ultimate auteur."
After directing a number of high-profile theatrical productions in his early twenties, including an innovative adaptation of Macbeth and The Cradle Will Rock, Welles found national and international fame as the director and narrator of a 1938 radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds performed for the radio drama anthology series Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was reported to have caused widespread panic when listeners thought that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was occurring. Although these reports of panic were mostly false and overstated, they rocketed Welles to instant notoriety.
Citizen Kane (1941), his first film with RKO, in which he starred in the role of Charles Foster Kane, is often considered the greatest film ever made. Several of his other films, including The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), The Lady from Shanghai (1947), Touch of Evil (1958), Chimes at Midnight (1965), and F for Fake (1974), are also widely considered to be masterpieces.
In 2002, he was voted the greatest film director of all time in two separate British Film Institute polls among directors and critics, and a wide survey of critical consensus, best-of lists, and historical retrospectives calls him the most acclaimed director of all time. Well known for his baritone voice, Welles was also an extremely well regarded actor and was voted number 16 in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars list of the greatest American film actors of all time. He was also a celebrated Shakespearean stage actor and an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety shows in the war years.
Welles is widely acknowledged as one of the most accomplished dramatic artists of the twentieth century, especially for his significant and influential early work—despite his notoriously contentious relationship with Hollywood. His distinctive directorial style featured layered, nonlinear narrative forms, innovative uses of lighting such as chiaroscuro, unique camera angles, sound techniques borrowed from radio, deep focus shots, and long takes.
Welles's long career in film is noted for his struggle for artistic control in the face of pressure from studios. Many of his films were heavily edited and others left unreleased. He has been praised as a major creative force and as "the ultimate auteur."
After directing a number of high-profile theatrical productions in his early twenties, including an innovative adaptation of Macbeth and The Cradle Will Rock, Welles found national and international fame as the director and narrator of a 1938 radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds performed for the radio drama anthology series Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was reported to have caused widespread panic when listeners thought that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was occurring. Although these reports of panic were mostly false and overstated, they rocketed Welles to instant notoriety.
Citizen Kane (1941), his first film with RKO, in which he starred in the role of Charles Foster Kane, is often considered the greatest film ever made. Several of his other films, including The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), The Lady from Shanghai (1947), Touch of Evil (1958), Chimes at Midnight (1965), and F for Fake (1974), are also widely considered to be masterpieces.
In 2002, he was voted the greatest film director of all time in two separate British Film Institute polls among directors and critics, and a wide survey of critical consensus, best-of lists, and historical retrospectives calls him the most acclaimed director of all time. Well known for his baritone voice, Welles was also an extremely well regarded actor and was voted number 16 in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars list of the greatest American film actors of all time. He was also a celebrated Shakespearean stage actor and an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety shows in the war years.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 12, 2022
How interesting this was. It is a rehearsal of Moby Dick the play. A bit different I did enjoy it, certainly anything by the great Orson Welles, I’m willing to read.
November 4, 2020
Really excellent adaptation of the classic. Very interesting framing device, I'd love to see it staged when Theater is allowed again.
February 10, 2019
Pregevolissimo recupero da parte di Gaffi sotto il marchio Italo Svevo. Avrei gradito, vista l’esiguità del testo, avere il testo originale a fronte per verificare alcuni passaggi della traduzione, non sempre convincente (il termine “ragazzetto”, il confuso episodio di Pip). Biasimevole la scelta radical-chic di proporre il libro con le pagine non tagliate.
March 21, 2019
I read this play preparatory to seeing an excellent staged reading (kind of meta!) by The Shakespeare Project of Chicago, at the Newberry Library. It's a remarkable piece, and unlike many plays, it reads well.
Welles manages to crowd a sense of the sweep, grandeur, and physicality of the book into a brief time and space, using the poetry, humor, and pathos of Melville's language to great effect. It's very moving, particularly when acted well (as The Shakespeare Project version was).
The show begins with a group of actors who initially were assembled to rehearse King Lear, but have been told to memorize a script of Moby Dick instead. They introduce themselves (as character types, not by name), joke and complain about their task, and play around a bit with rehearsing Lear before moving into a bare-bones production of Moby Dick, with no set, only improvised props and scenery, and with actors playing multiple roles. It's astonishingly effective: the personalities, the ship, the storms, the quest, the whale...all spring to life.
After the production I saw, someone pointed out that the play ends slightly differently than the novel; and some us also were intrigued by the Lear connection. The artistic director made the illuminating remark that Lear is a tragedy of ingratitude and Moby Dick is a tragedy of revenge; he thought the nature of the script had much to do with where Welles was in his life at the time he wrote and mounted the play--abandoned by Hollywood, frustrated in his filmmaking efforts. That's food for thought.
Welles manages to crowd a sense of the sweep, grandeur, and physicality of the book into a brief time and space, using the poetry, humor, and pathos of Melville's language to great effect. It's very moving, particularly when acted well (as The Shakespeare Project version was).
The show begins with a group of actors who initially were assembled to rehearse King Lear, but have been told to memorize a script of Moby Dick instead. They introduce themselves (as character types, not by name), joke and complain about their task, and play around a bit with rehearsing Lear before moving into a bare-bones production of Moby Dick, with no set, only improvised props and scenery, and with actors playing multiple roles. It's astonishingly effective: the personalities, the ship, the storms, the quest, the whale...all spring to life.
After the production I saw, someone pointed out that the play ends slightly differently than the novel; and some us also were intrigued by the Lear connection. The artistic director made the illuminating remark that Lear is a tragedy of ingratitude and Moby Dick is a tragedy of revenge; he thought the nature of the script had much to do with where Welles was in his life at the time he wrote and mounted the play--abandoned by Hollywood, frustrated in his filmmaking efforts. That's food for thought.
April 14, 2021
Squeezing an epic novel like Moby Dick into a two-hour play is impossible, but Wells does an admirable job. The play doesn’t try to match the sweep and the oceanic spectacle of the original, but calls on the audiences’ imagination to recreate the ship and the whale. (Recalling the prologue to Shakespeare’s Henry V.)
Wells wisely chooses to bypass the Queequeg meeting. It is an excellent section, and very funny, but the play needs to focus on Ahab. I didn’t recall many of the lines, and I was thinking that Wells was adding many of his own lines. But upon looking them up, Wells is drawing almost consistently from the novel.
I also liked that Wells put the plays in a (very) loose iambic pentameter poetry. (Where, I think, it should have always been.)
The play selectively pulls small pieces of dialogue from the novel. The cuts are unfortunate, but inevitable unless you want a seven-hour play. I’m not sure if you can make sense of everything without having read the novel. But I’d like to see this performed.
Overall, if you enjoy the novel, this is a fascinating and entertaining interpretation.
Wells wisely chooses to bypass the Queequeg meeting. It is an excellent section, and very funny, but the play needs to focus on Ahab. I didn’t recall many of the lines, and I was thinking that Wells was adding many of his own lines. But upon looking them up, Wells is drawing almost consistently from the novel.
I also liked that Wells put the plays in a (very) loose iambic pentameter poetry. (Where, I think, it should have always been.)
The play selectively pulls small pieces of dialogue from the novel. The cuts are unfortunate, but inevitable unless you want a seven-hour play. I’m not sure if you can make sense of everything without having read the novel. But I’d like to see this performed.
Overall, if you enjoy the novel, this is a fascinating and entertaining interpretation.
February 7, 2022
A conceptually ingenious and genuinely harrowing piece of work. Would love to see this on the stage some day, but - even more than that - I think it's ripe for a film adaptation (although the text at the opening of the book places a whole lot of restrictions on anyone who might explore such an endeavor). At any rate, this has inspired me to once again attempt to summit the entirety of "Moby Dick," after the abortive attempt I made to read it in high school (after being gobsmacked by - of all things - the USA TV movie with Patrick Stewart as Ahab).
As a wise man once said: the sea is dope.
Supposedly Welles filmed at least part of something approximating a filmed version of this stage play, and I'm looking forward to seeing whatever I can see of it by the time I get to it over the course of this whole project studying his entire body of work.
As a wise man once said: the sea is dope.
Supposedly Welles filmed at least part of something approximating a filmed version of this stage play, and I'm looking forward to seeing whatever I can see of it by the time I get to it over the course of this whole project studying his entire body of work.
April 22, 2019
Progetto interessantissimo. Alcuni passaggi confusi, temo per la traduzione (e concordo con chi chiede il testo a fronte, sarebbe stato utilissimo), e odioso il fatto di avere i sedicesimi da tagliare: ora ho un libro terribilmente sfregiato, che ho potuto leggere solo dopo un'ora di taglia e taglia e taglia.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews