Earlier this month, AP English 3 students and alumni bussed down into the city to watch a puppet show. The show in question was the first live performance of, in AP3 teacher Mr. Rhinehart’s words, the “powerhouse of American Literature,” Moby Dick.
Students who attended the play signed their field trip forms months in advance. Finally, on February 1st, 40 students sat in their red felt seats to watch an international play, which featured only one live actor.
The cast consisted of one actor and seven puppeteers, who manipulated puppet renditions of the remaining characters.
“The use of puppets was very thought-provoking to me, said GOAL Mrs. Lombardi, who helped to chaperone the trip. “We learned that puppets were chosen because Ishmael is the only surviving character to tell the story. Thus, the puppets allowed him to showcase the main characters in the tale while still representing them as ‘the dead.'”
Rhinehart was skeptical at first.
“The use of puppets at first seemed questionable,” he said. “However, upon viewing the performance in the context of the director’s intent, the use of puppets accomplishes certain creative effects that might not be as well conveyed without.”
The stage transformed throughout the play to emphasize deeper themes and draw attention to minute details. Rhinehart was especially impressed by the shifts of scale.
“Scale can be manipulated easily and then offer varying vantage points and distance points immediately,” he said. “Also, since the play was captured as Ishmael’s memory of the experience, puppets offered a flexible interplay between the literal and the abstract, the corporeal and the spiritual. Given the play’s intent, puppetry became a pragmatic and effective choice, in my opinion.”
Ada Zhang, a NASH junior who attended the performance, also touched on the use of puppets.
“The use of puppets was really ingenious, especially the way they made Ahab taller than everyone else to enhance the idea of his dominance over everyone else.” Zhang said. “The puppeteers were also very skilled and all the movements looked very fluid. For the first few minutes, I thought the characters were being played by people.”
However, as the saying goes, the book was better. Not every part of the popular classic was captured, which, given its 135 chapters, is not surprising. Rhinehart, however, was willing to forgive the adaptation.
“The approach to the performance captured a more primal and elemental struggle within Ahab’s tortured soul,” he said. “In that sense, the play grabbed the monomania that led the ship to its doom. Certain details were nicely chosen and omitted accordingly to fit the medium of theater.”
Lombardi agreed.
“It would have been impossible to cover all the characters, plot, and themes in the production,” she said. “I thought they did a really great job of covering all of the essential elements.”
