“This is the story of a man,” says Jim Lasko as he brings a small hand puppet from behind his back. It’s Captain Ahab, the monomaniacal sea captain, with wild King Lear hair. “And a whale.” Enter a mean little sperm whale with pale white skin, a vicious stare, and a toothy jaw that opens and shuts with a satisfying chomp.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
For five years Thomas has been working on and off to adapt Melville’s novel, staging several workshop productions along the way–on North Avenue beach, in Grant Park, at the Rhino Fest. And now, two weeks before opening their full-fledged treatment of the story, the enormity of their enterprise is making them a little giddy.
“Naturally we put the biggest, hardest puppet off till last,” says Thomas with a nervous laugh. At the foot of the Pegasus Players’ stage five puppet builders, all dressed in black shirts and pants, are bent over the huge black rings–aluminum covered with paper mache–that will make up Moby Dick’s ribs.
A Melville contemporary, critic Evert Duyckinck, called Moby-Dick “an intellectual chowder” because the novel was a compendium of so many ideas and writing styles and was at once an allegory, adventure story, and remarkably accurate account of the whaling industry. The Redmoon production is a chowder too, combining many different puppetry styles.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Photo/Jim Alexander Newberry.
