Moby Dick falls on Hard Times!
Written by Llysa Holland.

26 January 2000

 

Seattle’s theater simple returns to Adelaide for their THIRD visit to the ADELAIDE FRINGE with FRIENDS from San Francisco and TWO
ADAPTATIONS: Hunting for MOBY DICK and HARD TIMES!

theater simple has a star-studded past at the Adelaide Fringe - in 1996 they were awarded the Fringe Grand Prize for Excellence for their
ambitious season in residence at the Canadian Club. In 1998 theater simple curated the Foreign Legion at MADLOVE, and the venue(and
theater simple) were showered with all three of the Best Play Awards. 

Returning with the Foreign Legion 2000, here are some simple thoughts on the collaboration between theater simple of Seattle and Ghostlight of
San Francisco, and the literary legacies of Melville and Dickens.

HUNTING for MOBY DICK

Originally conceived by Ghostlight of San Francisco, MOBY DICK is 100% Melville-scribedtext, with a cast of 7: four company memebers of
Ghostlight, and three of the simpletons. Through stunning visuals, sea chanteys and minimal props, Ghostlight and theater simple take the
audience on an exuberantly physicalized adventure on(and off) the Pequod. Hunting for MOBY DICK was named the Best of the Fringe at the
Winnipeg Fringe Festival, and played at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco.

"Enthralling. A physical rumination on Melville’s turbulent moral drama. The production doesn’t forget that MOBY DICK was a terrific sea
yarn behind its awesome metaphors." 
The San Francisco Chronicle

HARD TIMES

The Seattle Weekly calls theater simple ‘experts at shoestring epics’ and we happily rise to the challenge with this adaptation by Bill Peters of
Ghostlight. Vaudevillean theatrics and period songs conspire with Dicken’s edgy fable of Coketown, whose denizens are pinned between ‘fact’
and ‘fancy’ during the Industrial Revolution. 

"theater simple offers fringe at its most superlative and sophisticated." 
The Sunday MAIL, Australia

Two together. Only three years separate Hard Times from Moby Dick and it is clear that both stories were shaped by the same passionate
respect for those who struggle against the titanic forces that seek to overwhelm the human spirit. 

"We are travelling theaters, and we use only a few objects to conjure these worlds into existence. Our primary tools are the words themselves;
words that seem to rest uneasily on the page; that urge themselves into our mouths and bodies. Putting these two productions into our
repertory has given us the chance to imagine a ‘conversation’ between these two masters of the language." Bill Peters, GHOSTLIGHT

Seattle’s theater simple and San Francisco’s Ghostlight at THE FOREIGN LEGION 2000 an oasis of explosive theater at THE ADELAIDE
FRINGE Cartoons, 145-155 Hindley (at Morphett, Adelaide).

Hunting for Moby Dick, adapted from Melville and Hard Times adapted from Dickens. 

please see the Fringe Guide for schedule details or www.adelaidefringe.com.au.