Moby-Dick

Moby-Dick - based on the novel by Herman Melville - from 15 years - premiere on September 9, 2022 - Münsterstraße 446
He is the most famous animal in world literature and at the same time a mythological creature around which the most adventurous stories entwine: Moby Dick, the white whale, a cosmic sea monster - immortal, omnipresent, gifted with reason - impressive because of his massive, shroud-colored body, his wake a Milky Way of creamy white foam and golden sparkling spray. Captain Ahab has made it his life's work to chase this most gigantic of all sperm whales across the world's oceans and ultimately to subjugate and kill it. Since Moby Dick tore off his leg in battle and escaped, madness and vengefulness have taken possession of Ahab and released inconceivable forces in him. To achieve his goal, the choleric captain gathers around him a conspiratorial community of more or less experienced sailors, promises an ounce of Spanish gold to the first person to sight the white whale, and sets sail from Nantucket aboard the Pequod - a kind of ship of fools in whose microcosm the whole world is depicted.
The novel "Moby-Dick or The Whale," published in 1851, which brought world fame not only to the title character but also to its author Herman Melville, is far more than an adventure story. Questions about the nature of man and his place in the universe are just as important in it as the relationship between man and nature, consideration for the environment and natural resources, or the way people treat each other. In the process, Melville works with constant changes of perspective, which provide for dynamics and surprises. The translator and Moby Dick expert Friedhelm Rathjen comments: "It turns out that the supposedly evil is perhaps better than the supposedly good and that this monster, as which the whale Moby Dick is initially portrayed, is basically no monster at all. Rather, in the end, the whale hunter is the monster." Robert Gerloff and his team, who most recently staged "Der überaus starke Willibald" at the Junges Schauspiel, will bring "Moby-Dick" to the stage at the beginning of the 2022/2023 season as a great adventure with depth, pace and linguistic wit, water, wind and fog.</