Moby Dick—Rehearsed
Moby Dick—Rehearsed is a two-act drama by Orson Welles. The play was staged at the Duke of York's Theatre in London in 1955, in a production directed by Welles. The original cast included Welles, Gordon Jackson, Patrick McGoohan and Joan Plowright.[1] The play was published by Samuel French in 1965.[2]
Welles used minimal stage design. The stage was bare, the actors appeared in contemporary street clothes, and the props were minimal. For example, brooms were used for oars, and a stick was used for a telescope. The actors provided the action, and the audience's imagination provided the ocean, costumes, and the whale.
Welles filmed approximately 75 minutes of the production, with the original cast, at the Hackney Empire and Scala Theatres in London. He hoped to sell the film to Omnibus, the United States television series which had presented his live performance of King Lear in 1953; but Welles stopped shooting when he was disappointed in the results. The film is lost.[3]
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The setting is a mid-19th century American repertory theater. The play begins subtly as the audience arrives with the cast milling around an empty stage. The cast members generally fool around and complain about their boss and their forthcoming production of King Lear. Then, making a big dramatic entrance and smoking a cigar, the actor manager of the time comes on stage and tells them they are going to rehearse another piece, Moby Dick.
The cast grudgingly performs the play, improvising scenery from items lying around, and gradually get more into character as the play develops.
[edit] The film
Because the film is lost, many people have speculated it was never created. However, evidence supporting the film was made can be found in the book, The Films Of Christopher Lee, by Pohle Jr. and Hart — Patrick McGoohan said in a 1986 interview that the excerpt of the film he saw while Welles was reviewing the rushes one day was fantastic.[4]
In The Fabulous Orson Welles, by Peter Noble, cameraman Hilton Craig reveals, "it was by no means merely a photographed stage-play. On the contrary, it was shot largely in close-ups and looked very impressive on near-completion."
Kenneth Williams' autobiography Just Williams records Williams' apprehension at the project, as it was filmed by the play's cast in just one weekend at the then-abandoned Hackney Empire theatre. He describes how Welles' dim, atmospheric stage lighting made some of the footage so dark as to be unwatchable. The entire play was filmed, but is now presumed lost. (Welles lost a great deal of material and footage when a portion of his house in Spain burnt down, but it is unclear whether Moby Dick—Rehearsed was among this lost footage).
The Moby Dick—Rehearsed film is not to be confused with a later project wherein Welles filmed a 22 minute version of various scenes from the play, playing all the parts himself.
[edit] Productions
The original London production ran for only three weeks.
In 1962, a production was mounted on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre starring Rod Steiger as "The Actor Manager/Father Mapple/Captain Ahab" and Roy Poole as "The Serious Actor/Starbuck" and directed by Douglas Campbell. The production ran for only thirteen performances (November 28 - December 8, 1962).
The play has since been performed numerous times on both sides of the Atlantic.
[edit] Cast
[edit] London Production
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Gordon Jackson | A Young Actor/Ishmael |
| Christopher Lee / Peter Sallis [5] | A Stage Manager/Flask |
| Patrick McGoohan | A Serious Actor/Starbuck |
| Wensley Pithey | A Middle-Aged Actor/Stubb |
| Joan Plowright | A Young Actress/Pip |
| Orson Welles | An Actor Manager/Father Mapple/Ahab |
| Kenneth Williams | A Very Serious Actor/Elijah and others |
| Joseph Chelton | A Manager/Tashtego |
| John Gray | An Assistant Stage Manager/Bo'sun |
| Jefferson Clifford | An Experienced Actor/Peleg |
[edit] Broadway Production
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Bruno Gerussi | A Young Actor/Ishmael |
| Max Helpmann | A Cynical Actor/Flask |
| Roy Poole | A Serious Actor/Starbuck |
| Hugh Webster | Actor with Newspaper/Stubb |
| Frances Hyland | A Young Actress/Pip |
| Rod Steiger | An Actor Manager/Father Mapple/Ahab |
| Bill Fletcher | Member of the Company/Elijah |
| Louis Zorich | Middle-aged Actor/Tashtego |
| William Needles | Stage Manager/Peleg/Voice of The Rachel |
| David Thomas | An Old Pro/The Carpenter |
| John Horton | Member of the Company/The Mastheader/Voice of The Bachelor |
| Lee Morrison | Member of the Company/Queequeg |
| Melvin Scott | Member of the Company/Daggoo |
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Welles, Orson and Peter Bogdanovich, This is Orson Welles. New York: HarperCollins Publishers 1992 ISBN 0-06-016616-9 Welles career chronology by Jonathan Rosenbaum, page 418
- ^ Welles, Orson, Moby Dick—Rehearsed: A Drama in Two Acts. New York: Samuel French, Inc., 1965 ISBN 0573612420. "Being an adaptation—for the most part in blank verse—of the novel by Herman Melville."
- ^ Welles, Orson, and Peter Bogdanovich, This is Orson Welles, Welles career chronology by Jonathan Rosenbaum, page 418
- ^ "[1] Patrick McGoohan: Danger Man or Prisoner?" by Roger Langley, Tomahawk Press, 2007
- ^ Peter Sallis: Fading Into the Limelight, Orion 2006
[edit] External links
- Moby Dick—Rehearsed at the Internet Movie Database
- Moby Dick—Rehearsed at the Internet Broadway Database
- http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=699
 |
This short film-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 |
This article on a play from the 1950s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
