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Moby Dick

A reimagining of Herman Melville’s epic, blending live performance with generative visuals on stage.

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Moby Dick

  • Type: Generative, Mapping, Stage
  • Location: National Theatre, Sofia
  • Premiere: February 2024
  • Director: Diana Dobreva
  • Scenography: Mira Kalanova
  • Costume Design: Marina Raytchinova
  • Projection Design: Petko Tanchev

Text: Alexander Sekulov, based on Herman Melville's novel of the same name | Composer: Petya Dimanova | Sound Design: Yavor Karagitliev | Choreographer: Deyan Georgiev | Light Design: Ilya Pashnin | Photographer: Alexander Bogdan Thompson

The performance Moby Dick, inspired by Herman Melville’s timeless novel, brings to the stage the relentless quest of Captain Ahab, pursuing a majestic white whale across the globe. In this epic and biblical journey, Ahab is joined by a devoted crew willing to follow him to the very end, while far away, their wives dream, quietly steering the fate of the voyage.

Departing from the familiar seas of human passion, director Diana Dobreva’s vision dives into the profound forces that shape life and death. The legendary whale emerges as a symbol of the inexplicable—our fear of time, our longing for the eternal, and our pursuit of the absolute.

Icarus Award 2025 for Masterful technical implementation

Between Time and Eternity

Moby Dick reimagines Herman Melville’s epic through a stage experience where live performance and generative visuals converge. The media design transforms the scenography into a dynamic environment, reflecting the psychological presence of Ahab’s obsession. Projection mapping, 3D simulations, and metaphorical imagery evoke sea storms, the whale, and the emotional currents of the narrative. The production bridges literature, technology, and theatre, immersing the audience in a world where human ambition, nature, and memory collide. It is a poetic exploration of obsession, loss, and the relentless pursuit of the unattainable.

Moby Dick: Beyond the Horizon

The Visual World of Captain Ahab

The media design in Moby Dick was conceived as a dynamic and poetic visual layer, created through custom generative processes in TouchDesigner and Notch. Rather than illustrating the plot directly, the visuals expand the world of Captain Ahab through metaphors, symbols, and dynamic simulations of sea storms. The legendary whale is not presented as a literal image, but as a psychological presence—an obsession that exists in Ahab's mind as much as in the ocean. Using generative 3D imagery and projection mapping across the scenographic elements, the stage became a living, responsive environment that shifted with the piece's dramaturgy. Light, texture, and movement were composed to follow the emotional currents of the performance, intensifying moments of tension, revealing hidden layers of meaning, and guiding the audience deeper into Ahab's relentless pursuit. In this journey, the dream he chases ultimately leads to his destruction.

This approach mirrors the way Herman Melville’s novel blends fact, myth, and philosophy—transforming a whaling story into a timeless meditation on obsession, fate, and humanity’s confrontation with the unknown.

From Myth to Literature

Melville drew inspiration from real events: the 1820 sinking of the ship Essex by a sperm whale, and accounts of Mocha Dick, an albino whale infamous for attacking ships off the Chilean coast. Out of such fragments of history, he shaped the white whale into a figure of myth, embodying both natural force and human obsession.

A Lasting Legacy

When Moby Dick was first published in 1851, it was neither a success nor widely understood. Only decades after Melville’s death was the novel recognised as one of the great works of world literature. Today, it endures as a profound allegory of existence and a landmark in modern storytelling, continuing to inspire artists, thinkers, and audiences across generations.

For more information about the performance, visit the theatre’s website here.