Avast Drama
If a sculptor makes sculptures, and an etcher crafts etchings, what type of artisan cranks out scrimshaws?
In case you’re clutching straws, scrimshaw is the art of carving whale teeth and walrus tusks, the favoured pastime among idle harpooners and their mates.
The answer is a scrimshander. Not a word you encounter every day. I’d never heard of it. Nic Velissaris stumbled across the term two years ago, visiting the National Maritime Museum in Sydney. The Melbourne playwright gawked at humpback jaws and inked fangs – and felt a plot bubbling to the surface.
Scrimshander, his play-in-progress, received its debut airing last night, as part of the Hard Lines season run by Melbourne Theatre Company. A sort of script lab, Hard Lines is that rare opportunity for untested writers to hear their scripts read by the pros, in a bona-fide theatre setting, before a flesh-and-blood audience.
And Nic’s Gothic play about whaling, high-sea treachery, ulterior research and (yes) lurv is more than seaworthy. Sleek, sound, the script is destined for open waters.
The entire drama pivots around a whale tooth, inlaid with a three-masted barque named The Leviathan’s Foe. The scrimshaw is a touchstone of the ship’s eerie disappearance – a story pursued by crafty academics in the present day, and a portal into the whaling world we visit.
The true test of a good play is the audience’s hunger to discover what happens next. And since we only sampled Scrimshander’s first act – 50 minutes of time-weaving and the ominous drowning of Ebor Jackson – that test rang true.
Can’t wait to dive into the full-length when it appears. You should do the same. Tell your crow’s nester to keep his spyglass trained on the horizon. The play is a potent mix of colonial Australia, sea lore, surprise and skullduggery – and a pleasure to behold.
And the best part? Punters get to plunge into two more play-bites tonight, part II of Hard Lines at the Grant Street Theatre in Southbank, Melbourne. Get your bum in gear if it’s not too late, or hang back a day and wait for my dispatch about other new Australian stuff in the offing.