SPYMONKEY'S MOBY DICK TO 7 November 2009.

Tour.

SPYMONKEY’S MOBY DICK

Tour to 7 November 2009.
Runs 2hr 10min One interval.
Review: Mark Courtice 29th September at Nuffield Theatre, Southampton.

That Sinking Feeling.
With audience participation, a fluorescent underwater ballet and bad puns it only needs a superannuated soap star for this adaptation to turn into a full-on panto. And a bit like panto it is designed for a very particular audience. If you have been to the theatre more than once or are over 15 this is probably not for you.

It’s an ambitious idea to adapt Moby Dick for the stage. The odd thing is the lack of ambition in Spymonkey's effort. With ships, whales, sinkings and a journey round the world there is a lot to fit in, but there is also obsession, madness, heroism and death and destruction. These could have a place even (or perhaps especially) in a comic adaptation.

Spymonkey seem to side-step all those challenges by jettisoning the book's complexity and strangeness and aiming squarely for the easiest possible laugh. It has to be said that for many in the audience at Southampton that was just fine, as there was a lot of laughter in the theatre.

What Spymonkey end up with is a mad muddle of scenes, feeble jokes and not very effective "theatrical" moments that are strung together on a story that from time to time touches that of Melville's original. It feels like a half hour sketch show elongated to fit. No joke is too feeble to be repeated three times over, no gag too irrelevant to be forced in.

There is a plethora of companies who adapt books for the stage, and many of them are very funny. The best, however, bring the whole gamut of theatrical skills to their story telling. Here the skills are suspect and the concentration wayward. The best create moments of theatre and pass on to the next; here they are delivered with crunching irony or a pleased smirk that breaks up the flow.

The physical production is well designed with the neat props (like the model ships) having real charm. There is a clever song for a figurehead to sing, and the moments when the authentic voice of Melville is used show what a real writer can do.

Otherwise this is a self indulgent, obvious, careless waste of everybody's time.

Cast: Aitor Basauri, Petra Massey, Toby Parks, Stephan Kreiss.

Director: Jos Houben.
Designer: Graeme Gilmour.
Lighting: Phil Supple.
Music: Tony Parks
Choreographers: Barry Grantham, Janine Fletcher.
Costume: Lucy Bradridge.
Associate director: Rob Thirtle.

2009-10-02 08:43:23