![]() The lights snap to black.” Many theater makers say that breath could very well be his last inhale, after which he is finally freed from the pains of his body, his loneliness, his grief. As written in Hunter’s script, the stage directions of that breath simply read, “A sharp intake of breath. ![]() Whether Charlie dies at the end of “The Whale” is up for debate. “So in that final moment, whatever flaws he had, whatever mistakes he made and in whatever ways he couldn’t love himself enough, he lived a life redeemed, because he gave everything to save his daughter.” “Ellie says terrible, devastating things to Charlie throughout the whole thing, but he loves her so much that it doesn’t even hurt him,” said Matthew Arkin, who played Charlie at South Coast Repertory. You want that last second to be a combination of incredible pain and incredible triumph because, however briefly it is that they connect, it’s still an achievement for him.” “His goal is self-destructive, but you want the audience to understand what has driven him to do this, and that his redemption is in the relationship he tries to forge with his daughter. “Every night, it was a journey, and it wasn’t easy to watch or to perform,” recalled Tom Alan Robbins, who starred in the 2012 world premiere in Denver. The intention is that, by the time Charlie shares that he’s giving his life savings to Ellie, and endures great pain to stand up and walk toward her as she reads her “Moby-Dick” essay aloud to him, the audience would feel the overwhelming fulfillment Charlie gets during his final breath in the play. As he attempts to nudge daughter Ellie toward a place of authentic self-expression, he too reveals himself to his students. Within these confined spaces, the actors who played Charlie - each wearing body suits weighing anywhere from 30 to 100 pounds - charted his arc physically and emotionally. For example, the 2014 Bay Area run raised the Marin Theatre Company stage by four feet and angled Charlie’s ceiling so that, from the audience’s perspective, the character appeared to “dominate the space in a way that intimidated the people who visited him,” said director Jasson Minadakis.Īwards Darren Aronofsky on ‘The Whale,’ fatphobia and empathyĭirector Darren Aronofsky dives deep on “The Whale,” fatphobia, human connection and how he feels about Brendan Fraser and Sadie Sink. ![]() Numerous stagings of “The Whale” accentuate the pressure-cooker effect by designing Charlie’s living room, where the entirety of the play unfolds, with an extra sense of claustrophobia or isolation. ![]() “So when some of them finally do, it’s gorgeous and almost magical.” “These deeply flawed characters actually care about each other so much, but there are so many obstacles for them to express that love or connect with one another in real ways, however desperately or destructively,” said Joanie Schultz, who directed a 2013 production at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theater. Throughout the intimate live piece - which is staged without the escape of an intermission - all five characters reveal truths to each other and the audience that raise the stakes of their potential bonds. “He’s not advocating anything, he’s just writing what he believes is true.” Hunter doesn’t shy away from any of the issues the characters are dealing with “but doesn’t bury you in either,” said Martin Benson, who directed a 2013 staging at South Coast Repertory. Throughout “The Whale,” Charlie is visited by his estranged and troubled daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink), and his frustrated ex-wife, Mary (Samantha Morton), both of whom Charlie abandoned when he ended his marriage and came out as gay Liz (Hong Chau), a conflicted caregiver who is also the sibling of Charlie’s late lover and Thomas (Ty Simpkins), a fundamentalist missionary who is far from home. The character is an amalgamation of Hunter’s past lives: as a closeted gay kid attending a fundamentalist Christian school in rural Idaho, a depressed adult who silently self-medicated with food, and an expository writing instructor for college freshmen (the piece’s heartbreakingly honest line “I think I need to accept that my life isn’t going to be very exciting” is an actual submission from one of Hunter’s students). Hunter from his own play, navigates a tricky line between empathy and exploitation. Movies Review: Does Brendan Fraser give a great performance in ‘The Whale’? It’s complicated.ĭarren Aronofsky’s intimate chamber drama, adapted by Samuel D.
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