This production – part of the London International Mime Festival – is by the French-Norwegian theatre company, Plexus Polaire. To describe it as ‘mime’ is to simplify – and perhaps undersell – its extraordinary artistic ambition. In ninety minutes, a company of seven actors and three musicians use mime, speech, music, puppetry, video projections, lights and sounds to tell Melville’s epic story of Captain Ahab’s doomed obsession with the great white whale. At some points, a huge larger-than-life-size puppet of Ahab held by three black-clad puppeteers dominates the stage as we learn what it means to battle huge sea creatures in the Southern Ocean. At other moments, we see – as if from a drone high in the sky above the Pequod – Ahab’s crew in small boats hunting whales. We are treated to an extraordinary set of visual and aural experiences.
Yngvild Aspeli, who directs this spectacular stage adaptation of Melville’s classic, explains that the interplay of life-size puppets and human actors is central to her way of telling stories. Indeed, it is hard to think of any other way that the story of whale hunting could have been brought to a theatre stage – even as large a stage as that of the Barbican Theatre. The first thing that the audience sees as the lights begin to glow is a stylised video representation of the sea – projected onto a stage-filling screen. Then Ishmael, the narrator figure of the novel, emerges to set the scene by telling us how a compulsion to leave the land and take to the sea saved him from despair. The long text-based passage at this point is misleading, though, as music and puppetry soon take over to tell the story. This may be about life below decks for the crew of the Pequod and how they survive the regime of their deranged captain, or it may portray the killing of a sperm whale and tell how its body is exploited to yield the meat and oils that made whaling such a lucrative – if dangerous – industry. And how the carcass must be protected from sharks.
The three musicians are integral to the way the story unfolds, playing in a range of styles from sea shanty songs to wild electronic rhapsodies. While they set the atmospheric backdrop, fifty puppets are deployed to tell the tale of the doomed hunt for Moby Dick. There are moments when the imaginative ambitions of the creators outstrip the ways in which the equipment and technology can be managed. The final climactic confrontation between the whale and the Pequod is sadly prosaic compared to some of what has gone before and feels like an anti-climax. But the final video projection of Moby Dick is truly impressive.
Despite a few flaws, this show is unlike anything I’ve seen on a London stage before. Its innovative fusion of art forms creates a visceral, immersive experience that captivates throughout. Even with its minor shortcomings, it makes for a compelling evening of drama and spectacle, leaving audiences with a lasting impression of bold, boundary-pushing theatre.
The Pit at the Barbican Centre
Director: Yngvild Aspeli
Performers: Plexus Polaire
Running time: 90 minutes
Dates: Until 25 January