A whale of a time with a classic

Spymonkey are known for their over-the-top physical comedy

Moby Dick, the classic 19th Century novel by Herman Melville, has been turned into an "anarchic" comedy.

Theatre company Spymonkey, working with Northampton's Royal & Derngate, have created a show which will go on tour.

One of the actors, Aitor Basauri, says that the novel might be one of the greatest in the English language, but he found it "pretty boring".

Spymonkey's version, he says, will be "anarchic and silly" involving mermaids and ventriloquist puppets.

'Irreverent and rude'

Melville's 1851 novel tells the story of Ishmael, a sailor on board a whaling ship commanded by Captain Ahab.

Ahab is seeking revenge on a giant sperm whale called Moby Dick which had destroyed Ahab's previous ship.

Spymonkey's stage version version might have fans of the book feeling distinctly sea sick.

Cast member Petra Massey describes their adaptation as "silly, ridiculous, hysterical, mad, subversive, irreverent and rude."

Aitor Basauri gave up on the book but revels in his 'anarchic' version

"Is is so bad that it is funny and so funny that it is bad," says Petra.

No women

An absence of women in the original story does not cause any problems for the production.

"I am a woman and I have to get in the show somehow," says Petra. "So I end up being a mermaid and a ventriloquist puppet."

Spymonkey's Moby Dick was previewed in May and June 2009. It has been re-worked and re-rehearsed in a new co-production with Northampton's Royal & Derngate Theatres, prior to a three-month tour.

Moby Dick is at the Royal & Derngate 18 - 26 September.