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Mortality dictates that everyone will face loss, but it cannot force anyone to accept it.
Rather than running from grief, Michael Durkin advises suffering souls to see subtraction as a route to addition and is advancing his message of persistence by directing “Bathtub Moby-Dick,” Renegade Classic Theatre’s second FringeArts production.
“We’re all trying to obtain this big, large idea, whether that’s success, money, a family, whatever, but no matter what it is, we’re looking to capture something,” the 28-year-old resident of the 900 block of Sigel Street said. “Sometimes we get it only to have it leave us, and other times it never comes.”
Through Sept. 22, the East Passyunk Crossing inhabitant is addressing the former experience through Robert, the hour-long piece’s lone character, who struggles to manage the pain from one of life’s harshest cruelties, the death of a child, more specifically, his would-be 13-year-old son. Eight years minus his offspring, he tries to drown his pain by retreating to a bathtub, where he imagines himself participating in Herman Melville’s 1851 masterpiece “Moby-Dick.”
“I’ve honed enthusiasm for tinkering with works for years,” Durkin said of selecting the American author’s tome to convey an unconventional coping strategy. “With this one, I needed to figure how to strip it down and give it a bit more of a contemporary feel so an audience could perceive Robert as someone who reflects the common man, someone searching for solutions.”
The local figure fell for the text in high school and fused it with a “Seinfeld” episode in which Kramer uses a shower as a multi-purpose spot to cement his concept, which he defines as being somewhere in between an adaptation and a repurposing. At first a joke to himself, Durkin realized he could have a whale of a time touching on something as relevant to this era as it was to Melville’s.
“It’s about forging an escape from reality,” Durkin said, likening the writer’s Captain Ahab, who seeks revenge on the titular mammal after an attack that cost him a leg, to Robert, who battles strife that proves unrelenting and makes his mind murky. “We’re really interested in having people realize they need to confront loss, acknowledge, understand and embrace it instead of burying it.”
Unlike the animal’s aggressor, the confused character in Renegade’s opus registers some solace, which Durkin dubbed “deranged joy,” as he must continue to contemplate his troubles.
“Without being too glum, I’d say it’s important to dwell on the lack of success,” the overseer, who is helming the action at 1816 Wharton St., an apartment that fulfills his quest to offer a residence-based performance, said. “I think ‘Moby-Dick’ and ‘Bathtub Moby-Dick’ encourage us to endure pain and grief and not blow them off with work or other preoccupations.”
Penning a piece whose primary influence lacks much redemption, Durkin knows any creation makes apparent one constant.
“I can’t give it away, but Robert personifies the whale as something worth seeking,” he said. “Each of us, we’re all trying to get something. We’re all trying to find our whale.”
The Brooklyn native commenced his artistic sojourn as a seventh-grader and fostered an affinity for the classics, including ancient Greek offerings and William Shakespeare’s output. Acting and directing before matriculating at West Chester University, he abandoned the former and pondered devising different takes on shows, with experimental companies serving as influences. Graduating in 2008, he aimed to become his heroes’ successor and helped to form Renegade the following year.
“We’ve loved finding a foothold, and we’re looking to continue to build on that,” the artistic director said of the entity, which FringeArts’ website notes “dismantles and deconstructs classic stories, established genres and taboo subject matter to create new theatrical endeavors.”
Through Renegade, he has helped to adapt works such as “Ubu Roi,” the French absurdist gem that his peers presented during the ’09 FringeArts cycle; “Prometheus Bound,” which meshed the work of Greek dramatist Aeschylus and folk singer Woody Guthrie in ’11; and Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie,” which this year inspired “Glass: Shattered.” Among only a few artists who blend traditional and experimental interests, Durkin revels in handling linear and disjointed plots to analyze life’s enormity.
“We’re tackling big matters and the mundane, too, because everything should be educational,” he said. “There’s conflict everywhere and we’re tested each day to see what we can muster against those challenges.”
Durkin has worked as an assistant director and a dramaturg for Amaryllis, Curio and InterAct theater companies, BCKSEET Productions and Luna Theater Co., 620 S. Eighth St., to which he will offer assistance for next month’s “A Clockwork Orange.” Following “Bathtub Moby-Dick,” he will turn his attention to another topic teeming with difficulty for many to fathom, religion.
“It’s going to be an investigative work to see what interests and doesn’t interest people about it,” Durkin said, adding that in the quest to achieve happiness and a sense of community, city residents could benefit from evaluating their reliance on or rejection of faith.
A devotee of theatrical salvation, the creative force, who through a mixology connection is offering sea-inspired cocktails at the shows, stresses that appealing to others can help someone to lose a bit of angst over uncertainties, as sought-out individuals will be facing similar woes.
“Struggles are unavoidable, as this show tries to show,” Durkin said. “It would be great for perseverance to be that, too.”
For tickets, visit fringearts.com.
Contact Staff Writer Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124. Comment at southphillyreview.com/news/lifestyles.
Staff photo by Kathryn Poole
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