Moby Dick is on stage at the Quirino Theater, directed by Guglielmo Ferro, and has as its extraordinary protagonist Moni Ovadia, in the leading role of Captain Achab.
The novel, published in 1851 with the title Moby Dick or The Whale, is considered the masterpiece of the writer Herman Melville, and one of the most famous novels in American and world literature. The story is narrated in the first person by Ishmael, who embarks as a sailor on the whaling ship Pequod. The captain of the ship, Ahab, is a dark character who instills fear in his men; he lost a leg because of the white whale Moby Dick - symbol of blind violence - and for this he wants revenge. Thus begins a long hunt for the cetacean in the immense ocean that, with its monsters and its depth, is described in all its power and inscrutability before man, with its fragile existence between good and evil. Until the final catastrophe comes, when Moby Dick destroys the whaler and the entire crew, dragging Ahab and his harpoon with him. Only Ishmael manages to save himself so he can tell the story of his mad and desperate enterprise.
In the theatrical adaptation at the Quirino, the dramatic narration begins on the Pequod, the cursed vessel that takes the entire crew to perdition, where the gold doubloon on the ship’s mast and the blood pact between the sailors are the symbol of the infernal descent into the abyss of non-knowledge. The character of Ahab appears obsessed with the idea of revenge, he is an impious man who ignores God, a man who goes beyond the limits of nature, challenging it, and for this reason falls into the final catastrophe. The first officer Starbuck instead, represents the voice of prudence and conscience, symbol of a theocentric vision of the world completely opposed to the blasphemy of Ahab’s hatred towards the white whale.
With Moni Ovadia, Tommaso Cardarelli, Nicolò Giacalone, Pap Yeri Samb, Filippo Rusconi, Moreno Pio Mondì, Giuliano Bruzzese, Marco Delle Fratte.
Photo credits: Riccardo Bagnoli
