You may think you're in the wrong place when you walk into Gunston Arts Center's Theater Two for "Moby Dick Rehearsed."
With the house lights fired brightly, a dozen or so people in street clothes are milling about the messy black-box stage, some hauling equipment but most just chatting or goofing around. It's a few minutes until the show starts -- or so it seems -- and though some audience members keep an eye on the chaos, the rest pay it as much regard as the shuffling of set pieces during a play's intermission.
As the star and director of a play within a play, Charles Matheny is commanding in American Century Theater's production.
(Jeffrey Bell -- American Century Theater)
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That is, until the group suddenly, masterfully commands everyone's attention, without so much as a lighting cue or cleared throat. Actually, there is a signal for both the audience and the nattering layabouts to shut up: the arrival of a bearded blowhard (Charles Matheny), the director of a production of "King Lear" that the fictional theater troupe before you has gathered to rehearse. The director plays King Lear himself; after one scene, however, he abruptly decides to do a cold reading of a theatrical adaptation of Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" instead. His own role in the run-through? Ahab, of course.
This meta-portrayal of arrogance was penned by cinema's own megalomaniac, Orson Welles. Welles's only foray into playwriting was staged in London -- Broadway wouldn't have him -- in 1955 for three short weeks. Though a Welles-free production was mounted in New York five years later, that run was just as unsuccessful, and "Moby Dick Rehearsed" has been rarely produced since.
This makes the play just the ticket for American Century Theater, a company dedicated to the staging of neglected works. In 1997, ACT's successful production of "Moby Dick Rehearsed" put the then-two-year-old company on the radar of audiences and critics alike. This remounting, in celebration of ACT's 10-year anniversary, brings back the show's original director, Jack Marshall, as well as six of the original cast members, most notably Matheny as Ahab.
The production is an exercise in pure theater. Without costumes or set, the cast and crew of "Moby Dick Rehearsed" nonetheless manage to transport the audience to the nautical world of Melville's revenge story. Welles took 80 percent of his script directly from "Moby Dick," though the play boils down the epic novel to its bare bones: There's Ahab, naturally, the captain obsessed with killing the white whale that tore off his leg; Starbuck (Timothy Hayes Lynch), the first mate who tries to convince Ahab that his mission is dangerous and senseless; and Ishmael (William Aitken), the story's narrator and only survivor of the voyage.
Matheny, Wellesian in voice and presence, commands the most attention in ACT's production, whether barking out reproaches such as "Too many of you are standing around!" as the play-within-a-play's director or, as Ahab, passionately persuading his crew to help him hunt the whale. In Act 1, there's not much else to "Moby Dick Rehearsed" besides Ahab's speechifying, though the rest of the cast is certainly kept busy in trying to shape the imaginary setting -- singing sea chanteys, swabbing an invisible deck, or simply swaying back and forth as the crew listens to their captain. Sporadically, Marshall throws in humorous reminders that the show's supposed to be only a rehearsal, having an actor check his lines, say, or preceding the real intermission with a stage director's order that union rules dictate the cast take a break.
It's in Act 2, however, when "Moby Dick Rehearsed" really shines. With the verbose monologues that set up the story already taken care of, the play's last chapter focuses on the hunt. And even though the audience's imagination is already firmly at sea, ACT's depiction of the great white whale is still a marvel: It only takes a thunderous roar and skillful shadows (courtesy of Dan Murphy and Marianne Meadows, respectively) to make the monster's presence thrillingly felt. Of course, the cast's terrified expressions help, too.
The perfectly orchestrated trick reminds you of a question posed to Ishmael, who claimed he wanted to join Ahab's crew to see the world: "Can you not see the world from where you stand?" The accomplishment of "Moby Dick Rehearsed" is that it allows us to see it as well.
Moby Dick Rehearsed, by Orson Welles. Directed by Jack Marshall. Costumes, Rip Claasen. Approximately 2 hours 20 minutes. Through April 30 at Gunston Arts Center, 2700 S. Lang St., Arlington. Call 703-553-8782 or visit www.americancentury.org.
