Martin Denton

Melvillapalooza is Metropolitan Playhouse's fourth annual mini-festival devoted to the life and work of a celebrated American author (preceding Herman Melville as subjects have been Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, and Mark Twain). There are six different programs being presented as part of Melvillapalooza. I saw one of them, "Voyage A," and so this review makes no claim toward comprehensiveness but is, hopefully, representative of the experience of this event.

"Voyage A" is a double-bill of new one-act plays. The first is Billy Budd, in an adaptation written and directed by Scott Barrow. This is a faithful dramatization of this novella, which was left unfinished by Melville when he died in 1891. It's narrated by Captain Vere of His Majesty's Navy, who recounts how under his command the young innocent seaman Billy Budd was impressed into service on his ship the Indomitable, and how Billy's apparent perfection made him popular with all men on board save one, the Master-at-Arms, John Claggart. The consequences of Claggart's enmity prove tragic.

What I liked about Barrow's take on the tale is that he doesn't impose much on it: though the story can read allegorically, Barrow lets it unfold as a historical yarn about the sea, filled with interesting and valuable contextual information that helps us understand why events transpire as they do, but lacking the heavy hand of judgment or symbolism.

Barrow has staged the piece with just six actors, four of whom are at least double cast; this sometimes leads to confusion as to who's who, though the economy of this choice does make some sense. The actors are all fine, happily—Andrew Davies, Joe Petrilla, and Arthur Aulisi, who play various supporting roles; John Little, who is excellent as the (possibly) conflicted Vere; Justin Gibbs, utterly convincing as the simple and innocent Billy; and Andrew Grusetskie, who is a standout as Claggart, lifting him from mere melodramatic villainy to create a fully-formed tormented and tormenting man.

Following a brief intermission, Dan Evans's The Archangel caps the evening. The idea of this play is quite delightful: Herman Melville, suffering from a huge case of writer's block, finds inspiration to put Moby Dick to paper from some unlikely sources—a runaway slave named Ishmael, and a young woman whose recent encounter with an archangel has led her to renounce her former profession of prostitution.

Unfortunately, the execution of the idea, as directed by Evans and performed by a cast of six, is generally unsatisfying. The pacing feels slow, and most of the actors deliver ponderous, overwrought characterizations. Only Laurence Waltham's sly take on Walt Whitman, Melville's new friend, seems really simpatico with Evans's clever concept.

Nevertheless, The Archangel's fanciful alternative history provides a neat counterpoint to the more traditional adaptation of Billy Budd with which it shares the program. All in all, a rewarding couple of hours of Melville.

 
New Theatre Corps

Reviewed by Amanda Halkiotis

Melvillapalooza: Voyage A

 The Metropolitan Playhouse’s Fourth Annual Literature Festival focuses on the American writer Herman Melville. Through poems, staged readings, and musical interpretations, his work and personal history comes to life. This evening’s entertainment, Voyage A, featured a scripted adaptation of Melville’s Billy Budd and a playful slant on the conception of Moby Dick.

Scott Barrow’s take on Billy Budd aims to do justice to a story of adventure and honor by staging it with sensitivity and spark. The plot centers around Billy, a proud and naïve sailor who volunteers—at sword-point—to be part of Claggart’s crew. As Billy, Justin Gibbs brings out the sweet sincerity of a boy on the brink of manhood. Bud’s habit of nervous stuttering while denying an accusation or admitting a wrongdoing completes Mr. Gibbs’ delightful performance. He is well met by Andrew Gruesetskie’s chill-inducing menace as Claggart. The opposing morals these two characters represent reach their tipping point when a murder occurs on deck and a decision must be made how to prosecute the offender. With no law in place nor judge to enforce it, the men aboard must decide for themselves how to resolve the situation at hand. The story reaches an unexpected conclusion, and Mr. Barrow’s compact, well-paced adaptation brings to life the challenges and consequences of determining someone else’s fate, and the haunting retributions of such reckonings.

Dan Evans takes a different approach with The Archangel: glib historical inaccuracy. In this original work, Herman Melville (Dave Powers) is a modest, uncertain man bound by writer’s block. On the brink of beginning his great masterpiece, Melville, played by a magnetic Mr. Powers, paces the stage and performs a soliloquy of his neurotic insecurities to Nell, a past-her-prime prostitute and bar owner (LuLu LoLo). Without knowing much else about what he wants to write he discloses his allegory of the great white whale to Nell, who can’t believe her ears and calls for a second opinion. Out comes Delilah (an outrageous and shrill Amy Fulgham), a prostitute possessed by an archangel and thereby controlled by a great white force of her own. Though she’s resistant at first, she soon serves as interpreter between the archangel and those in Nell’s bar in an attempt to cure Melville of his writer’s block and thrust him into a creative frenzy. Joined by humorous cameos including a smug Walt Whitman (Laurence Waltman) and an impassioned Henry David Thoreau (Christopher Norwood), this lighthearted comedy takes just enough creative license with historical figures and events to make for an absurd and unforgettable night.

If Voyage A is any indication of the rest of Melvillapalooza, then anchors aweigh: these plot twists and character idiosyncrasies that put the life and works of Melville in a new light, not just meeting our expectations, but exceeding them.