Moby Dick Rehearsed (various productions)

[Wellesnet]

FROM WELLESNET FACEBOOK:
http://www.montgomerynews.com/articles/ ... 634172.txt

[Wellesnet]

MDR at Stanford, part of Stanford Rep's "Orson Welles: Substantial Shadows" summer festival:
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2014 ... -of-a-show

Director Rush Rehm has put together a 90-minute show that honors Welles' original production while adding elements that mirror the crew's psychological dilemma. Look for the changing roster of female actors who represent the mastheader. Their changing positions reflect the play's action and mood. It's an element that Welles did not include in his original script, but it transforms the ship, in a sense, into the story's subconscious.

[Wellesnet]

Oregon production of MDR sets sail later this month with a female Ahab:
http://www.wellesnet.com/moby-dick-rehe ... e-of-ahab/

[Wellesnet]

‘Moby Dick – Rehearsed’ to be staged throughout summer near LA:
http://www.wellesnet.com/moby-dick-rehe ... s-angeles/

[Wellesnet]

‘Moby Dick – Rehearsed’ to be staged in Rome:
https://www.wellesnet.com/moby-dick-rome/

[tonyw]

Apart from the main feature, detailed descriptions of this play are very sparse concerning its original London production. Yet some indications appear suggesting the production resembled that moment in MACBETH when the title character rushed up to the blasted hearth to receive the so-called reassuring witches's promise that operated in a minimalist manner with little, if any sets.

According to June 29th review in THE SKETCH, Welles "knocks up a very useful sea storm out of associated noises, a raffle of ropes and a couple of swinging lamps; but most of his efforts to do much with little, merely make us self-conscious...we forget that we have shpiped with Captain Ahab on board a whaler, and find ourselves staring at a number of clever actors seeking to do the impossible on the stage of The duke of York. Mr. Welles looms large among them; I think that Patrick McGoohan's second mate is as truthful as anyone."

McGoohan later went on to become the BRAND of his generation in a stage performance later shown on BBC TV. He was supposed to play Ahab in a Manchester Royal Exchange Theater production of MOBY DICK in the 80s but backed out to director Michael Elliot's chagrin who replaced him with Brian Cox. The Birmingham Daily Post review of 17 June 1955 also singled out McGoohan's performance but objected to Welles's anti-illusionistic approach of "nothing is required butt the actor."

The June 20 1955 edition of THE SCOTSMAN was more critical but recognized Welles as an "innovator, accepting the stage's dimensions not as a limitation, but as a challenge." Welles went against the grain of a traditional play here. He also stepped out of the stage to harpoon his enemy!

Rod Steiger later appeared in a New York production and a radio version appeared with Claire Bloom as the cabin boy. Christopher Lee from the original Welles cast also did a radio broadcast of a science fiction version written by Ray Bradbury. All the actors with the exception of Kenneth Williams went on to better things but I can remember him playing Napoleon on a 60s ITV presentation of a Jean Anouilah play - and doing it convincingly.