Why Not Theatre and Harbourfront Centre to Present Wildly Original Adaptation of Moby Dick by Innovative French-Norwegian Puppetry Company Plexus Polaire
Performance Dates: December 13, 15, 16 at Fleck Dance Theatre
Why Not Theatre is pleased to announce that it has partnered with Harbourfront Centre to present a wildly-original theatrical adaptation of Herman Melville’s classic Moby Dick, by innovative French-Norwegian puppetry company, Plexus Polaire. Moby Dick will be presented over three performances on December 13, 15 and 16 at the Fleck Dance Theatre as part of Harbourfront Centre’s fifth annual Festival of Cool. The Toronto presentation, made possible by the Canada Council for the Arts and Nordic Bridges initiative, will be the play’s Ontario premiere and final stop on a Canadian tour that includes appearances at Casteliers (Montreal) and Le Diamont (Quebec City).
“We are delighted to bring Plexus Polaire to Canada,” said Why Not Theatre Founder and Co-Artistic Director, Ravi Jain. The company is forging a new path in the world of puppet theatre. The work is so unique and breathtaking; it’s of a scale and inventiveness we rarely get a chance to see. I’m so excited for Toronto audiences to experience this magical storytelling!”
Hailed by critics as ‘a creation of great poetic power, melancholic, visually stunning’ and ‘a dark and powerful philosophical tale,’ Plexus Polaire’s Moby Dick is a unique theatrical adaptation of Melville’s ‘wonderful beast of a book,’ featuring seven actors, fifty puppets, video-projections, a ‘drowned’ orchestra and a whale-sized whale. “This is the magic of a total show. Not to be missed,” exclaimed Vivant Mag.
In describing the inspiration for Moby Dick, director/creator Yngvild Aspeli said, “My grandfather was a sailor. He had a naked woman tattooed on his upper arm, and I remember him as a smell of tar and tobacco. He came from an island on the west-coast of Norway, a tiny harbor filled with foreign ships and languages, fishermen, sailors and children waiting for fathers who never came home from the sea… I like how the sea somehow draws invisible lines between the different corners of the world; how it creates points of connection. How, facing this force of nature, we are all the same. And no-one captures the battle between man and nature like Herman Melville in Moby Dick.”
Yngvild Aspeli is an award-winning director, actress, puppeteer and puppet-maker known for her innovative use of life-sized puppets, combined with live actors, immersive soundscapes and arresting visual elements. Aspeli studied at Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris and Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mézières. With her French-Norwegian company Plexus Polaire, she has created and directed six shows: Signals (2011), Opera Opaque (2013), Ashes (2014), Chambre noire (2017), Moby Dick (2020) and Dracula (2022). She is currently working on an adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House that will premiere in Autumn 2023.
Performance Details
Moby Dick
December 13, 15 & 16 | 7:30 PM | Tickets starting at $20
Fleck Dance Theatre, 207 Queens Quay W
85 minutes with no intermission
Ages 14+
A Plexus Polaire production co-presented by Why Not Theatre and Harbourfront Centre
Tickets available through Harbourfront box office. Click here to purchase.
Fleck Dance Theatre is a wheelchair accessible venue with wheelchair accessible restrooms. More information on accessibility needs can be found here.
About Why Not Theatre
We push boundaries, build community, and find new ways. Rethink how stories are told. And who gets to tell them. We MAKE great work that takes chances, and tours all over the world. We SHARE everything we have because more artists mean more stories. We PROVOKE change because we believe art should be for everyone. At Why Not we make things, better.
About Harbourfront Centre
Harbourfront Centre is an international centre for contemporary arts, culture and ideas, and a registered, charitable not-for-profit cultural organization operating a 10-acre campus on Toronto’s central waterfront. Harbourfront Centre provides year-round programming 52 weeks a year, seven days a week, supporting a wide range of artists and communities.
Why Not Theatre is generously supported by: Government of Canada, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Government of Ontario, Ontario Trillium Foundation, City of Toronto, Toronto Arts Council, National Arts Centre Creation Fund, RBC Foundation, TD Ready Commitment, Agrawal Family, Charles & Marilyn Baillie, Deb Barrett & Jim Leech, Bhalla Family Foundation, Chanchlani Family Foundation, The Lindy Green Family Foundation, Richard & Nancy Hamm, Hal Jackman Foundation, Kingfisher Foundation, T.R. Meighen Family Foundation, Metcalf Foundation, The Slaight Family Foundation, The Wuchien Michael Than Foundation, Tamara Zielony, Crespoint, and Sultan Lawyers.
Media Contact:
Katie Saunoris (she/her), Publicist and National Communications Manager, Nordic Bridges,
