Ishmael: The greatest fishing tale of them all

Nate Sipe, Jim Parker, Kevin Kniebel (musicians); Jack Weston

(Photo by Dan Norman)

Sometimes dragging yourself out of the house during the Minnesota winter seems like a terrible burden. It’s warm at home. There’s no terrible road conditions, low visibility, lower temperatures, or awful parking to deal with when you choose not to go out.

Still, there are rewards for the brave, such as the Jungle Theater’s new production, Ishmael.As you might guess from the title, this is a version of Moby-Dick. It’s been trimmed down to a slim 90 minutes, but does so by honing in on the core of the tale: the madness of Captain Ahab, the wanderlust of Ishmael, and the scary life that awaits anyone foolish enough to sail the seas.

All of this is told through the capable hands of Jack Weston, who presents us with a campfire tale to end all campfire tales. Adapter Leo Geter uses only words from Melville’s original novel. That means it retains the original tone even if the events have been scaled back.

The story does take its time getting started, but the lengthy prologue helps to set Ishmael’s character and allows the audience to sink deeper and deeper into the story, until we – like our narrator – are almost drowning under Ahab’s mad passion.

Weston isn’t alone on stage. A trio of musicians – two drawn from neo-bluegrass outfit Pert Near Sandstone – offer support, as they sing traditional tunes or provide the occasional “crowd” when needed. The focus, however, remains on Weston, whose dazzling performance makes it feel like we are right there on the Peqoud with the doomed crew.

Find out more here.

Addendum (or a scary look into the way my mind works)

Moby-Dick has made an impact on lots of culture, including rock and pop music. Led Zeppelin called its extended drum solo/chance for the rest of the band to score some drugs, “Moby Dick.” The doom-laden metal band Ahab took cues from the story, as did the heavier-than-thou Mastodon on “Leviathan.”

Then there’s Moby, who apparently is a distant relation of Melville, and took his name from the famous white whale. However, there is nothing heavy or mysterious about Moby or his music.