There’s no blubber in this stunning ‘Moby Dick’ at Harbourfront Centre

Moby Dick

By Plexus Polaire, co-produced with Why Not Theatre and Harbourfront Centre. Until Dec. 16 at Fleck Dance Theatre, 207 Queens Quay W. Part of Nordic Bridges. harbourfrontcentre.com or 416-973-4000. Part of Nordic Bridges, running until Feb. 23, 2023.

“Call me Ishmael,” says Ishmael, a sole human in an ocean of puppets.

It begins.

This isn’t the “Moby Dick” of your high school English classroom and these aren’t the puppets from days of Jim Henson yore. This “Moby Dick” is persistently moody, preoccupied with the “not-dead-but-not-alive” sensation that accompanies a life at sea; in its suave, slick esthetics, one gets the sense Melville himself might have appreciated the production.

Though Ishmael (and his famous opener) are ostensibly our guide, crazed Captain Ahab — represented here by puppets and down a leg since his last encounter with the great white whale — is the focal point of much of the show and, by the end, it’s not hard to concede Ahab’s obsessive detestation for the creature actually looks a little bit like love.

A Plexus Polaire production co-presented with Why Not Theatre and Harbourfront Centre, this “Moby Dick” plunges us to the bottom of the ocean, studded with sharks and executed by a corps of wickedly talented actors and puppeteers.

Puppets construct the material confines of this world — toy boats, small fish, stuffed whales of varying sizes — and, spookily, they populate it too, uncanny suppositions of humans against Ishmael’s flesh and blood. There’s some speaking, but not much — narration as needed comes from Julian Spooner as Ishmael, and Ahab’s meaty curses (Viktor Lukawski) crop up from the unseen puppeteers behind the captain’s facade.

It’s not hard to follow Melville’s story in the absence of language; the writer’s imagery is so evocative that it translates to stage quickly and easily.

Perhaps the most startling effect achieved by the puppets appears early on in “Moby Dick”: a herd of beleaguered sailors emerge from thick smoke, human-sized and silent in their sinister approach toward the audience. Only once the smoke dissipates does it become clear: just half of these very humanlike figures are human. The rest are cleverly designed puppets, each one manipulated by a human so they can walk in tandem with the ensemble.

This tactic is simply ravishing, effectively doubling the size of the cast from six to 12 — so smart and so spooky. It’s just one of director Yngvild Aspeli’s many wins; her vision is ambitious but oh so clear, and her team is adept enough to execute her take on “Moby Dick” with flourish and endless finesse.

“Moby Dick” is not just bodies and puppets. The space of the Fleck Dance Theatre transforms entirely thanks to projections by David Lejard-Ruffet and a functional two-storey set designed by Elisabeth Holager Lund.

When we’re aboard the Pequod, the multi-level scenography allows us to peer into the ship’s hold — it’s an effect nearly identical to that seen in the Canadian Opera Company’s recent production of “The Flying Dutchman,” Live music, too, works with the production to create that unsettling atmosphere using only a double bass, electric guitar and percussion set (Lou Renaud-Bailly, Emil Storlokken Ase and Georgia Wartel Collins).

The production does not falter and knows from the first beat exactly what it wants to achieve.

The following is a matter of personal taste: while “Moby Dick” is not joyless, it is relentlessly, obsessively dark in the literal sense. Lighting designers Xavier Lescat and Vincent Loubière have ably demonstrated Melville’s maritime malaise and showcased Aspeli’s sea creatures. But the production at times feels in desperate need of some levity — even a moment of brighter lights or less fatalistic music — so the audience can get a chance to breathe.

At 85 minutes with no intermission, “Moby Dick” is a marathon most will be all too pleased to complete. But if even one or two of those minutes had been opened up to a lighter hand or a brighter stage picture, the journey to Ahab’s crushing defeat might have been all the more satisfying.

Still, this “Moby Dick” is a once-in-a-lifetime theatre experience — the ever-growing whale is perhaps worth the price of entry on its own.

Unfortunately, the run has already sold out — as well it should — but this production, in tandem with Canadian puppet legend Ronnie Burkett’s “Little Dickens” at Canadian Stage, proves with gusto that puppets are back in a big way post-pandemic. No, they’re not just for kids and no, they’re not all Muppets. Some of them are glowing, murderous whales and sneering, pathetic, fanatical sea captains.

Moby Dick

By Plexus Polaire, co-produced with Why Not Theatre and Harbourfront Centre. Until Dec. 16 at Fleck Dance Theatre, 207 Queens Quay W. harbourfrontcentre.com or 416-973-4000

SHARE: