To be fair and honest, I should begin by noting that I am not an admirer of the much-acclaimed playwright and director Morris Panych, neither as a playwright nor as a director. I usually find his work to be arch, pretentious and clumsy. However, this work is so intertwined in its direction, movement and choreography, it is almost impossible to determine who created what; so I suppose I must credit Panych with this Moby Dick's overall inventiveness and fascinating movement and design as well as blaming him for its ultimate incoherence and tedium. The largest question it raises -- despite the truly impressive work of its cast and crew in dance-like movement and pantomime and staging and design -- is whether there is really any point in doing it. Unless you know Melville's novel really well, you will not be able to follow its story or comment here. The only spoken dialogue is narration; and that is recorded and deliberately muffled, so that very little of Melville's words are clearly heard. Too, a good deal of the pantomime is not only imprecise, but when clear it is often contrary to the novel's famous text. [Father Mapple's great sermon is apparently entirely about chasing away misfits.] A Melville-worshipper who didn't find this mishmash ludicrous would find it insulting. I'd recommend a different title.
Basically, this is a kind of pantomime-ballet about Moby Dick choreographed to nicely recorded and reproduced music by Debussy (expectedly, "La Mer" toward the end) and some stunning if often mysterious sound effects. The attractive cast move beautifully throughout, and some of the more explicit effects are striking and involving, e.g., women in flesh-colored tights lifting the shirts they wear like skirts in order to suggest fish-tails, and one hung upside-down and seemingly skinned of her outer-garment, like a whale being gutted.) The final battle with the great white whale, however, is completely confused and unclear. But Ishmael's survival and rescue are clear enough.
The production certainly displays what first-class talent Stratford can bring to such an exercise; and an hour or so of the dance-drama provides sufficient memorable images to entertain in an artsy way, if one forgets the notion of plot or a treatment of "Moby Dick." But even Panych's many Canadian admirers are unlikely to want to see this thing revived anytime or anywhere else.
