Herman Melville, Moby Dick, and Hudson

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Herman Melville, born in New York City on August 1, 1819. Gossips explored Melville's connections with Hudson in April, at the outset of Hudson Hall's celebration of the Melville bicentennial and Hudson's history as a whaling port. This weekend, Hudson Hall presents an anchor event in its Hudson's Merchants & Whalers series: a one-man theatrical adaptation of Melville's classic novel Moby Dick.

The production, hailed by the Irish Times as a brilliant "distillation of Melville's genius," stars renowned Irish actor Conor Lovett performing with live musical accompaniment by ten-string fiddler Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh. 

Moby Dick premiered in Youghal, County Cork, in 2009, and has since toured to Boston, Bristol (UK), California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Paris, Shanghai, Sofia (Bulgaria), Vermont, and twenty-eight venues in Ireland.

Speaking of the origins of the project, director Judy Hegarty-Lovett recalls, "Our good friend Lee DeLong had been telling me for some time to read Moby Dick. I finally got a paperback edition, and within two chapters I told Conor he had better read it as it was going to be our next project." She continues, "Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh is one of Ireland's most exciting traditional Irish musicians. His presence as a witness to Conor's telling of the tale of Ishmael is as important as his beautiful and sensitive fiddle playing."

Performances of Moby Dick are at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, October 4, and Saturday, October 5, and at 5 p.m. on Sunday, October 6. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets.
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