MOBY DICK;
or, The Whale

© Greg Amgwerd

Presented by Moved by the Motion
Directed by Wu Tsang

 

With this sujet the group Moved by the Motion takes on one of the "Great American Novels": Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Sophia al Maria and Wu Tsang's adaptation, interwoven with extracts by a sub-sub-librarian (Fred Moten), tackles the novel's subterranean currents, encountering a resistant hydrarchy and haptic collectivities of "mariners, renegades, and castaways" (CLR James). Directed by Wu Tsang and scored live by the ZKO to a composition by Caroline Shaw and Andrew Yee with Asma Maroof, the silent film follows the white whale above and below the surface of the water, developing a visual cosmology that resists the exploration and exploitation of the earth under imperial colonialism. The staging of Moved by the Motion interweaves the story of the whaler's 'floating factory' with the early days of the film industry.

With Tosh Basco / Josh Johnson / Steven Sowah / Fred Moten / Sebastian Rudolph / Thomas Wodianka / Thelma Buabeng / Vincent Basse / Ondrej Vidlar / Mel Guesson / Titilayo Adebayo / Gottfried Breitfuss / André Atangana / Maja Beckmann / Karim Boumjimar / Enantios Dromos / Timon Essoungou / Rene Melliger / Wiebke Mollenhauer / Daniel Kweku Schmid / Stéphanie Scholl / Corey Scott-Gilbert / Sscopeta Shephard / Malik Sievi / Rafal Skoczek
Directed by
Wu Tsang
Written by
Sophia Al-Maria
Original Score
Caroline Shaw / Andrew Yee / Asma Maroof
Conductor
Kevin Griffiths
Produced by
Laura D’Incau

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Co-Produced by
Wu Tsang
Executive Producers
David  Codikow / Nadja Rangel
Associated Producers
Tosh Basco / Sophia Al-Maria, Stefan Scheuermann / Barbara Higgs
Cinematography
Antonio Cisneros
Movement Direction
Tosh Basco
Choreography
Josh Johnson
Costumes
TELFAR / Kyle Luu
Production Design
Nina Mader
Virtual Production
Bild Studios
Video Design
Fray Studios
Edited by
Jérôme Pensel
Dramaturgy
Katinka Deecke / Joshua Wicke
Audience Development
Mathis Neuhaus
Theatre Pedagogy
Manuela Runge
Production Assistance
Laura Weibel
Assistant director
Sonja Levy
Stage design assistance
Natascha Leonie Simons
Costume design assistance
Paula Henrike Herrmann / Ulf Brauner
Production interns
Pauline Avognon / Andrina Imboden / Josephine Scheibe
Costume design intern
Naïma Alissa Trabelsi
Script Translation
Sinikka Weber / Alain Angehrn
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With live accompaniment by the Zurich Chamber Orchestra (ZKO) conducted by Kevin Griffiths.
Co-Commissioned by LUMA Foundation, Superblue, TBA21–Academy, HARTWIG ART FOUNDATION, The Shed, DE SINGEL and The Whitney Museum of American Art. Supported by Martina Vondruska & Gerd Schepers.

Subtitled by Katja Roloff on behalf of Panthea (2022).
Quotations from Moby Dick were subtitled based on the translation by Matthias Jendis (Hanser Verlag, 2001).

  • 75 minutes, no interval
  • Premiere: 12 March 2022, Pfauen

Image gallery & Videos

© Greg Amgwerd

Bits on Pieces
More texts and contexts related to our stagings in the theatre’s journal.
Somewhere Between Disappearing and Becoming (In)visible

With Moby Dick; or, The Whale, the group Moved by the Motion takes on one of the "Great American Novels." Sophia Al Maria and Wu Tsang's version, interwoven with sub-sub librarian Fred Moten's commentary, tackles the novel's subterranean currents, subterranean currents, encountering a resistant hydrarchy and haptic collectivities of "mariners, renegades, and castaways" (CLR James). We asked the artist Nina Emge, who lives between Zurich and Berlin, for a report for the Schauspielhaus Journal.

more
Directors Talk:
Wu Tsang and Trajal Harrell

With the series Directors Talk you can bring our in-house directors Alexander Giesche, Suna Gürler, Trajal Harrell, Yana Ross, Christopher Rüping, Nicolas Stemann, Wu Tsang, and co-artistic director Benjamin von Blomberg along with you into the productions of the 2021/22 season in eight conversations. During the second lockdown they met on Zoom to talk about here, now, and tomorrow, mainly in pairs and once round-robin. The conversations are part of the season preview, which presents the 2021/2022 season and is available now in all our venues, as well as free to order online.

more
Directors Talk:
Yana Ross and Wu Tsang

With the series Directors Talk you can bring our in-house directors Alexander Giesche, Suna Gürler, Trajal Harrell, Yana Ross, Christopher Rüping, Nicolas Stemann, Wu Tsang, and co-artistic director Benjamin von Blomberg along with you into the productions of the 2021/22 season in eight conversations. During the second lockdown they met on Zoom to talk about here, now, and tomorrow, mainly in pairs and once round-robin. The conversations are part of the season preview, which presents the 2021/2022 season and is available now in all our venues, as well as free to order online.

more
The 8 chatting.