Under the Whaleback
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Transcript of 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
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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
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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
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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.