An adaptation of Moby Dick as a silent film and theatre piece with a postcolonial and queer reading that highlights its marginal characters.
Wu Tsang and her collective Moved by the Motion reinterpret the world of Herman Melville’s 1851 novel by highlighting supporting characters and foregrounding sublimated themes. Pacific Islander harpooner Queequeg, the Sub-Sub Librarian and cabin mate Pip become key players, while the novel’s critiques of totalitarian belief and hierarchical exploitation of labour are read through a queer, postcolonial lens.
MOBY DICK; or, The Whale inventively combines the tropes of silent film, the props and choreography of theatre, and the texture of VR and archival footage. It points out the human costs and ecological crises arising from extractive capitalism and an endless drive for progress even as it celebrates the endurance of desire, solidarity and poetry.
This programme is brought to you with the support of the U.S. Embassy in Singapore.
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