"Chasing the New White Whale-
Harpooning Addiction"
An Art & Advocacy Project
ABOUT THE PROJECT‑
CHASING THE NEW WHITE WHALE is a performance art & advocacy model created by playwright Michael Gorman dedicated to bringing awareness to the issue of opiate addiction in the commercial fishing community of New England and beyond.
Through an evolving series of environmental installations, readings, presentations, and performances, and direct engagement with the community, Gorman and his production company, The Forty Hour Club, have forged a powerful creative tool with which to “Harpoon Addiction”.
Gorman likens the innovative nature of the model to the mid-nineteenth century invention of the “toggle” harpoon that revolutionized the whaling industry with its lethal efficiency, drawing parallels to both the insidious nature of addiction and the resourcefulness needed to confront it. His work on the ongoing project explores the current National opiate crisis through the unique lens of the fishing industry and draws inspiration from Moby Dick, creating a metaphor between the plight of the modern day addicted fisherman and Ahab’s obsessive pursuit of the White Whale.
By presenting performances in non-traditional “venues” such as those on and around the working waterfront, and by directly involving members of the community, including those in recovery and restorative justice prisoner reentry programs, The Forty Hour Club’s goal is to create an open forum for discussion around the issue of addiction with which to propel constructive change.
In the language of recovery, “Connection is the opposite of addiction”. Ultimately, the project’s mission is to create connection by engaging the audience and community in a creative experience that emphasizes the need for more compassion and understanding, more treatment and less punishment, more education and opportunity to help reduce the stigma associated with addiction, and help initiate healing.
Gorman’s personal interest in this project grew from his own family history with opiate addiction (his brother Kevin, a commercial fisherman, died of a heroin overdose), as well as his two-decades long work on his trilogy of plays “The Honor and Glory of Whaling”. The trilogy charts the rise and fall of a young commercial fisherman through the intrusion of opiate addiction and features a mythical chorus of ghostly whale hunters inspired by Ahab’s stowaway crew—Fedallah and the Phantoms—who come to represent those who are “invisible” in our modern society--the addicted, the imprisoned, and the abandoned members of our disenfranchised working communities.
In its evolution from the trilogy, Chasing the New White Whale “is not simply about personal sadness and loss”, says Gorman. “It is about a regional and national health crisis and a call to action. It is not intended to be my plaintive voice but the echo of the over 70,000 lives lost to opiate addiction each year.
CHASING THE NEW WHITE WHALE is a performance art & advocacy model created by playwright Michael Gorman dedicated to bringing awareness to the issue of opiate addiction in the commercial fishing community of New England and beyond.
Through an evolving series of environmental installations, readings, presentations, and performances, and direct engagement with the community, Gorman and his production company, The Forty Hour Club, have forged a powerful creative tool with which to “Harpoon Addiction”.
Gorman likens the innovative nature of the model to the mid-nineteenth century invention of the “toggle” harpoon that revolutionized the whaling industry with its lethal efficiency, drawing parallels to both the insidious nature of addiction and the resourcefulness needed to confront it. His work on the ongoing project explores the current National opiate crisis through the unique lens of the fishing industry and draws inspiration from Moby Dick, creating a metaphor between the plight of the modern day addicted fisherman and Ahab’s obsessive pursuit of the White Whale.
By presenting performances in non-traditional “venues” such as those on and around the working waterfront, and by directly involving members of the community, including those in recovery and restorative justice prisoner reentry programs, The Forty Hour Club’s goal is to create an open forum for discussion around the issue of addiction with which to propel constructive change.
In the language of recovery, “Connection is the opposite of addiction”. Ultimately, the project’s mission is to create connection by engaging the audience and community in a creative experience that emphasizes the need for more compassion and understanding, more treatment and less punishment, more education and opportunity to help reduce the stigma associated with addiction, and help initiate healing.
Gorman’s personal interest in this project grew from his own family history with opiate addiction (his brother Kevin, a commercial fisherman, died of a heroin overdose), as well as his two-decades long work on his trilogy of plays “The Honor and Glory of Whaling”. The trilogy charts the rise and fall of a young commercial fisherman through the intrusion of opiate addiction and features a mythical chorus of ghostly whale hunters inspired by Ahab’s stowaway crew—Fedallah and the Phantoms—who come to represent those who are “invisible” in our modern society--the addicted, the imprisoned, and the abandoned members of our disenfranchised working communities.
In its evolution from the trilogy, Chasing the New White Whale “is not simply about personal sadness and loss”, says Gorman. “It is about a regional and national health crisis and a call to action. It is not intended to be my plaintive voice but the echo of the over 70,000 lives lost to opiate addiction each year.
The project will be touring Maine in 2021. More details HERE.
Watch a short video about the project— "Chasing The New White Whale- Harpooning Addiction"
"Gorman sees himself as an everyman playwright with working-class sensibilities. He wants to create art 'about the chorus of invisible people' whose stories are not told on stage. 'A voice in society, that’s something that’s been denied addicts and
working-class people. I want to tell their stories,' he said."
—National Fisherman Magazine (Dec. 2018)--
working-class people. I want to tell their stories,' he said."
—National Fisherman Magazine (Dec. 2018)--
After all, what was Ahab, but an addict really, and what was Moby Dick but an allusion to opium, and heroin, its contemporary scourge.”
— M. Gorman
Our Art & Advocacy Model In Action:
Watch a short documentary about a collaborative performance/outreach event in Belfast, Maine.
"Phantoms" Tell Their Stories On Stage in a Performance of "In Ahab's Head—Chasing Phantoms"
(Watch the full video below).
Watch a short documentary about a collaborative performance/outreach event in Belfast, Maine.
"Phantoms" Tell Their Stories On Stage in a Performance of "In Ahab's Head—Chasing Phantoms"
(Watch the full video below).
“It just connects with the fishing industry and every bit of it is exactly how it is.....How the drugs interplay with fishing, and the lives and the people it destroys. I know, I was in that sad, deep, and dark place for years until I pulled my way out of it. I think of the friends in this industry that I have lost.”
—Response from Robbie Roberge—a commercial fishing captain and recovering addict after attending a performance at Portland’s Fish Exchange (Portland, Maine)
Watch: Fedallah & The Phantom's. Mike Gorman's Chorus of "invisible" People.
Mike Gorman, Playwright, in New Bedford, MA.
Chasing The New White Whale is an on-going project dedicated to bringing awareness to the issues of addiction
and recovery within the commercial fishing industry and other working communities.
The Forty Hour Club will be producing many exciting events in association with this project.
Please check our event calendar, sign up to receive our newsletter (below), or contact us for more information.
We hope you can join us on The Chase!
and recovery within the commercial fishing industry and other working communities.
The Forty Hour Club will be producing many exciting events in association with this project.
Please check our event calendar, sign up to receive our newsletter (below), or contact us for more information.
We hope you can join us on The Chase!
Help Support "Chasing The New White Whale—Harpooning Addiction"
We are a grassroots volunteer-run organization. Your donation will help us to continue to bring our programs
and performances to communities in need.
THANK YOU for supporting this important project!
We are a grassroots volunteer-run organization. Your donation will help us to continue to bring our programs
and performances to communities in need.
THANK YOU for supporting this important project!
Follow "Chasing The New White Whale" on Instagram.
