"The Ahab Inside Me"—A High-Sea's Blues Opera

From acclaimed Maine playwright Michael Gorman of the famed La MaMa Theatre in N.Y.C., comes a NEW ground-breaking Blues Opera and epic tale of addiction, obsession, and recovery.

In a tale that stretches across generations and ancients—lost mariners, lost souls, lost lives—“The Ahab Inside Me” is a provocative and challenging new musical theater production that explores the traumatic impact of a fatal overdose on a fishing family and the inspiring efforts of the community to address the destructive roots of addiction.

Written by Michael Gorman and directed by Joe John Battista (Artistic Director of The 13 Street Repertory Company in NYC), this thrilling production will incorporate original live music and song (with full blues/rock band), spoken word, dramatic performance, commentary choruses, community participation, and more—to restore connections lost or frayed by the compound crises of the opiate epidemic and COVID. The work draws inspiration from Melville’s Moby Dick and Ahab’s obsessive pursuit of the White Whale.

It will premiere at the historic Colonial Theater in Augusta—a theater undergoing a “rehab” of its own and where a renewed effort is underway to restore the theater and bring it back to life for the cultural and economic benefit of Augusta.

Performers will include community members of all ages, from both the theater and recovery communities, as well as professional actors, singers and musicians from Maine, New York City, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and California.

The production is supported by a Project Grant from The Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by The National Endowment for the Arts, and is part of the on-going project Chasing The New White Whale—Harpooning Addiction—a performance-based Art & Advocacy model created by the playwright and his production company The Forty Hour Club—a collective in independent artist’s dedicated to bringing awareness to the issue of opiate addiction in the commercial fishing community of New England and beyond.

All shows will take place at the Colonial Theatre, 139 water Street in Augusta.

DATES & SHOWTIMES:

Friday, Sept. 2nd @ 7:00 pm

Saturday, Sept. 3rd @ 7:00pm

Sunday, Sept 4th @ 3:00pm

There will be a series of community talk-backs after the Friday and Sunday shows lead by leaders from the Recovery and Arts communities, as well as the playwright and performers in the show.

Tickets: $25 suggested donation, per person.

The production is being staged in recognition and celebration of National Recovery Month, a National observance held every September to educate Americans about substance use disorder and treatment.

Tickets and more information at: www.fortyhourclub.com

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