full-length play produced in 2005 at the Playwrights’ Center
based on the 1904 novel* by Jack London
Being in a ship is being in jail, with the chance of being drowned.
– Samuel Johnson
As any serious Jack London fan will attest, The Sea-Wolf is the best thing the author ever wrote. Not only is it a gripping adventure story, it’s also a penetrating study of human behavior.
The setting is a ship called the Ghost whose captain, Wolf Larsen, loves to drive his men to the point of mutiny so that he can have the pleasure of beating them into submission. But Larsen isn’t just a brute – he’s an intelligent, articulate nihilist whose actions are in perfect accord with his philosophy. When the Ghost rescues an educated gentleman from a shipwreck, Larsen at last has someone he can talk to. Then an attractive young woman comes on board, and things start to get really ugly…
cast: 8M, 1F
* never before, to the best of our knowledge, adapted for the theater
† written but not directed by Steve Schroer
