Mercury Summer Theater

Herman Melville's Moby Dick

English · Dramatic Readings, Nautical & Marine Fiction, Action & Adventure

Mercury Summer Theater presents radio adaptations of literary works and dramatic stories. This broadcast features Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, the novel of Captain Ahab's relentless pursuit of the great white whale.

Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre company brings the story to radio through dramatic performance, using actors, dialogue, and sound to convey the voyage of the whaling ship Pequod and the danger gathering around its captain. The result offers a compact way to encounter Melville's maritime adventure as a theatrical listening experience.

The program's appeal lies in the contrast between the vastness of the sea and the crew's close, tense world aboard ship. Ahab's obsession gives the drama its dark, compelling center, while the radio format lets listeners imagine the ocean and the hunt through voices and atmosphere.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.