THE MOBY DICK BLUES at The Ellen Stewart Theater at La MaMa

“Think Trainspotting meets The Perfect Storm” in Playwright Michael Gorman’s epic new blues-rock opera The Moby Dick Blues—a working class opera for our planet…for our times.

Told through lyrics and live music that span the spectrum from blues, spoken word, rap and rock, the opera begs the question, “What was Ahab but an addict really, and what was the White Whale but an allusion to opium, and heroin, its contemporary scourge.”

The past and future collide in a tale that stretches across generations and ancients-lost mariners, lost souls, lost lives-in this iconoclastic working-class opera about a New England fishing community's daunting quest for survival and transformation in the face of the opiate crisis.

When a troubled young sea captain cuts a Faustian bargain with a fisherman turned drug dealer, The Moby Dick Blues catapults us down to “the crossroads” where delusion becomes reality and livelihoods and traditions are tested in a high-stakes battle for the soul of a community.

Topical and bold, the opera calls for a reevaluation of Ahab’s vengeful obsession with the White Whale, and our own destructive relationship with nature, the environment and ourselves.