under the whaleback

7/29/2019 Under the Whaleback

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Theater Performance

25 March 2013

Lost at Sea

Under the Whaleback by Richard Bean spans the course of three generations,

chronicling the deterioration of the Hull fishermen and their craft. The play takes place

aboard three different sea crafts: the Kingston Jet in 1965, the James Joyce in 1972, and

the Arctic Kestrel museum ship in 2002. Each ship shares a unique feature in the Wilma

Theater’s production- no walls. The majority of the play emphasizes the insurmountable

feeling of claustrophobia and entrapment amongst fellow crewmates. Given the subject of

the play, this intrepid design choice initially bewildered me. The lack of walls seemed to

remove the claustrophobic nature inherent in Bean’s writing.

That being said, I found myself being pulled in two very contradictory directions

in terms of the set design. Yes, the lack of foundation and structure for the walls of the

ship seemed paradoxical having read the play before hand. However, it also provided a

sense of atypical irony within the piece as a whole. I found that as an audience member,

the wide-open design oddly gave me a sense of romanticism and intimacy with the cast

onstage. I was able to see every angle of the theater and imagine myself on stage as an

actor and even a character. It also conveyed a sense of realism, for an audience member,

due to the setting of the play. I was able to look through the gaping walls of the vessel

and see a black mass, i.e. the back of the theater, and imagine a vast, endless, oceanic

abyss. The surrounding darkness was enhanced by the hydraulic system incorporated into

the set design, which offered a sense of genuine vulnerability and raw danger for the

characters in the play as well as the actors on stage. The reality of the danger of the



situation on stage added an immense amount of realism and believability during the

moments of oceanic disturbance.

The sound design worked in conjunction with the set by conveying a sense of

danger and reality both on and off stage. The storm was sporadically harkened to with the

sounds of crashing waves with a gradual, seamless dissipation leading the characters back

into natural dialogue. However as natural as the oceanic effects were, the true essence of

life on stage was delivered through the meticulous, metronomic clicking of Roc’s lighter,

which starkly contrasted the inconsistent, unpredictable nature of the sea. Roc’s fixation

with the lighter represents, to me, his longing for stability and consistency in life. He is

the only character who seems to truly have a vision of life after his time at sea. Of course,

his dreams are quickly quashed when Norman admits to sleeping with Roc’s bride-to-be.

The perpetual suppression of life after oceanic servitude adds to the feeling of

interminable entrapment on board the ships. Whenever the nature of the character’s

dialogue reaches a point of utter discontentment, a trio of design effects disturbs the

essence of the scene.

Crashing waves, electrical fluctuations, and vessel motion together provide an

abrupt reminder of the vulnerability of the predicament that the men are subject to while

at sea. The initial, dramatic summation of the thunderous waves, a dramatic blackout, and

the hydraulically powered ship truly convinced me, as an audience member, that I was as

vulnerable as the characters on stage and could possibly be lost at sea. This

conglomeration of sensory bombardment does an extraordinary job of conveying the

sense of life at sea. I immediately found myself sympathizing with the characters on

board. It seemed that no matter how hard they may try to escape the nature of the world



around them, the men on board are inevitably made aware of their situational

predicament. This, to me, conveys an undeniable sense of vulnerability with no escape. It

was a daunting recognition as an audience member when I realized that every attempt

these men could make to escape the nature of their surroundings would inevitably be

quashed by the harsh conditions of the terrific sea.

The organic realism offered by the functionality of the overall design was

hindered by one distinct feature: the cleanliness of the set itself. Perhaps it is a

misconception, but I imagine the whaleback of a Hull ship inhabited by 4 alcoholic men

to be less than spotless. If I could have changed one thing about the Wilma’s staging of

Under the Whaleback, it would have been to make the set more cluttered, in order to get

away from a sense of such particular design. That being said, the design as a whole

conveyed a sense of true naturalism from my perspective.

The dramaturgical emphasis of the play seemed to rely heavily on the dark,

sadistic humor of the characters on stage. Crewmembers smashed trinkets, sexually

assaulted the open air, and attempted to fight one another in a frivolous rage. When I read

the play, I sensed more of the tension and discomfort with the crewmates and their

situation and less of the humorous quirks of certain characters. I feel as if this choice may

have hindered the play in terms of the psychological impact that it had on the audience as

a whole. I would have preferred to see a darker interpretation of the play with more of a

focus on the reality of the situation on stage.

The choice of the director, Blanka Zizka, to recycle actors was brilliant. Each

actor was able to embody an authentic duality that truly worked well with the



generational shift within the play. This method made the final confrontation between

Darrel and Pat seem all the more realistic. I had felt as if these characters had a history

with one another. Not only did they carry personal baggage within their life times, but in

the life times past as well. This concept was driven home as each nail was gunned into

Darrel’s hands. What made the final scene all the more believable was the apparent

preconception and preproduction that Pat had put into the entire torture routine. It was

also made more believable by the feeling of Pat’s impatience and fear that someone may

enter the museum display as he hid his weapons. I appreciated the lack of intricacy,

which, to me, conveyed a certain aspect of vulnerability and fear that anyone carrying out

a murder plot would most likely have. Another human quality portrayed in the final scene

was Darrel’s refusal to accept guilt for the deaths of his crewmates des pite every attempt

made my Pat.

Overall, the Wilma Theater team did a masterful job of conveying a cabin fevered

crew stuck in a seemingly concrete existence left to the mercy of alcohol, time, and the

ocean depths. I was left with an overwhelming sense of guilt and pity for Pat, whose

father had died decades prior. I don’t think the final scene would have been as

quantitatively satisfying if the actors, designers, and director had not put forth maximum

effort in order to convey a true sense of believability and reality of life at sea.

under the whaleback

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