Entertainment
29 January, 2023
Lano & Woodley hilariously retell Moby Dick
EPIC comedic duo Lano & Woodley are visiting Cairns with their new show, Moby Dick, a comedic retelling of the classic novel in nonsensical Lano & Woodley fashion.
Kicking off on February 3, the audience will enjoy the duo’s return to Cairns with their new show Moby Dick at the Cairns Performing Arts Centre.
No open water is required for this live stage show, where Lano attempts a dramatic performance of the epic Moby Dick, only for Woodley-branded mayhem to ensue.
One part of Lano & Woodley, Frank Woodley, said the idea of this rendition of Moby Dick was born at the beginning of the pandemic.
“Our live shows have almost always been narrative, physical comedy,” Woodley said.
“What we do is similar to a play but more like clowns putting on a show.
“During lockdown, we started thinking about what our next show would be and Col said ‘maybe we could do our take on a famous novel’, and he was reading Moby Dick during lockdown. Just in passing, Col said, ‘maybe we could do Moby Dick’.
“As soon as he said that, I just got a really strong image of him as Captain Ahab, the crazy captain, who, nature in the form of this whale, has injured him and destroyed this sense of himself, and this hatred of the whale drives him. I instantly saw him in that role and the comic potential of this.
“Somehow, between reading the book and putting together the first show, we managed to cobble together our version of Moby Dick,” he said.
Woodley said Cairns fans could expect Moby Dick to be a show that has everything and nothing to do with the classic novel.
“The most fun part of the story is that we tell the story of Moby Dick, Captain Ahab having his leg bitten off by the whale and captaining his ship to obvious disaster attempting to get revenge,” he said.
“And simultaneously, the whale represents irrepressible forces of nature, how Ahab wants to dominate nature, but nature is too powerful; in the same way, we play with the fact that Col wants to control the show and put on a respectable and impressive show, but I’m like a nine-year-old with attention deficit disorder.
“I’m not playing the part of the whale as such but I’m the irrepressible force of nature and that wild spontaneity that can’t be controlled much like children are.
“And just like the whale, I have driven Col mad and then clearly from the start, this enterprise of us putting on this play is doomed, and it’s going to end in disaster,” Woodley said.
“We crossreference between Ahab’s story and Colin’s story as we progress, and it’s really satisfying.”
The other half of Lano & Woodley, Colin Lane, said chaos was bound to take over Moby Dick. “We will convince you the show should be called Moby dick - by the end, you may think it’s more like Moby dickheads,” Lane said.
“In the new show, an obsessed and maniacal captain tries desperately to maintain his dignity and achieve the ultimate revenge. It’s also a story about Moby Dick.”
Beyond the laughs and the chaos, fans of Lano & Woodley can expect a beautiful set that will make them feel lost at sea. Woodley encouraged Cairns fans to be a part of the hilarious Moby Dick experience.
“I’ve heard that laughter is a great aphrodisiac,” he said.
“So I’m very confident that you’ll have a good laugh, and that might lead to something else when you get home.”
To purchase tickets for Lano & Woodley’s Moby Dick, visit Ticketlink, or click the following link in our online edition: https://bit.ly/3R8GwIH
