Leviathan is a play about people who want to preserve the world as it is, but who do not have the means to do it. So instead, the world is changed for them: with an axe and a harpoon. Lauri Lagle’s new play brings together Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick, Anton Chekhov’s play The Cherry Orchard, and the biblical story of Jonah in the belly of the whale. Played in the former factory building in Krulli quarter, which has been closed to the public until now, we witness a story which combines Ranevskaya’s nostalgia with Ahab’s anger, god’s erratic ways with the whale’s determination, a strange monologue about the Estonians being the chosen people with acrobatics performed according to the instructions of the Estonian decathlete Erki Nool. It’s a play about the present day and also the past, the desire to destroy, and at the same time to preserve, it all. A walk through different stories, weaving together their recurring motifs.
Lauri Lagle has worked with a wide range of materials as a director, but very rarely has he undertaken the interpretation of a play or novel. Here he relies on the world literary classics, placing Moby Dick and The Cherry Orchard in a contemporary context. Also live music is performed on stage.
