Moby-Dick - (Oberon Modern Plays) by Sebastian Armesto (Paperback)

About the Book

The spirit and atmosphere of Herman Melville's masterpiece - romantic, ambiguous, characterful and rich with allegory - is captured onstage.

Book Synopsis

"It's true. It's all true for Moby-Dick. He's a killer, he's a fury, he's an angel of hell. Why if the white whale could talk he'd talk like Ahab."

Nantucket. 1851. Center of a whaling industry that transformed blubber into the oils and candles that lit the world. It's there that a schoolmaster called Ishmael arrives to ship on a whale-boat. He enrolls under Ahab, Captain of the Pequod - a man bent on destroying the white whale that lost him his leg. Certain the destruction of his nemesis will slake his thirst; Ahab's single-minded pursuit of Moby-Dick consumes Ishmael, the crew and the Pequod itself.

The spirit and atmosphere of Herman Melville's masterpiece - romantic, ambiguous, characterful and rich with allegory - is captured in this wonderful stage adaptation.

Review Quotes

"Armesto makes an impressive job of boiling down the sprawling tale of 19th-century whale hunting, groaning with endless digressions, to its essence...a taut and ripping sea yarn - which nevertheless hasn't lost the sense of Melville's epic quest for life's meaning." - Metro

"Muscular and terse... vivid and profound." - Time Out (London)

"Armesto's adaptation captures not only this sense of pursuit - of Ahab's blinkered need to keep going, whatever the cost - but also the wider themes of the book, the primal tangle between predestination and free will, the holiness of whales... from start to finish it exerts an incredible grip." - The Stage

"Incredibly enterprising and ingenious...a remarkable achievement." - What's On Stage

"[A] bold and brilliant stage adaptation... The script is well crafted, turning the dated but nonetheless adventure-filled novel, into an accessible show, full of the story's original poetry... This is two hours of immensely entertaining theatre, complete with gold doubloons, sea shanties and rum." - Telegraph

About the Author

Sebastian Armesto is an English film, television and theatre actor. He is the son of the historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto. Armesto has acted in high-profile theatre productions in Britain, including three shows at the National Theatre and one at the Royal Court. He also writes and directs theatre with company simple 8. His productions include directing and adapting Les Enfants du Paradis to great acclaim. Most recently, he co-wrote and directed a play based on William Hogarth's The Four Stages of Cruelty.