After a few years away, simple8 are returning with a new play later this year, but first they're reviving a former hit with a touring production of
Moby Dick. I last saw Sebastian Armesto's adaptation of the book that set the template for the Great American Novel 11 years ago
at the Arcola, but for the London leg this time it relocates to Wilton's Music Hall, a venue whose long history does include a connection to sailors and sea shanties, so seems a good match for a demented revenge drama that takes place mostly at sea. Ahab (Guy Rhys) captains a 19th century whaling ship, on a mission to hunt down sperm whales and use their blubber to power the world's lamps. But for him the mission he's actually being paid for is secondary, as on a past voyage he encountered a notoriously aggressive, unusually white whale nicknamed Moby Dick, that's been known to turn the tables on whalers and sink the ships.
