Never Leaving This Boat—Fragments of a Blues Opera

NEVER LEAVING THIS BOAT—Fragments of a Blues Opera

WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY / MICHAEL GORMAN
MUSIC DIRECTOR / CHARLES DUKE

About The Production:
Never Leaving This Boat—Fragments of a Blues Opera, a provocative and challenging new work by Maine-based playwright Michael Gorman—premiered on the Rockland waterfront September 11th-12th, 2021 during National Recovery Month.

The performance charts the rise and fall of a young commercial fisherman through the intrusion of addiction and explores the role of myth and storytelling as both sustaining and destructive forces in a Northeast coastal fishing community.

Using Melville’s 19th-century monster as a metaphor for the modern plague of opioid addiction, Gorman explores the ruinous effects of the opiate epidemic on the commercial fishing industry in a tale that stretches across generations and ancients—lost mariners, lost souls, lost lives.
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Using the power of live performance to address the opioid epidemic, this epic tale tapped into the deep ritualistic healing power of the blues and incorporated original live music and song (with a full band), spoken word, and performance— to restore connections lost or frayed by the compound crises of the opiate epidemic and COVID. The 2 day/3 performance event celebrated the spirit of the blues and the inspiring strength of human connection in the wake of adversity.

The production was part of Gorman’s on-going project Chasing The New White Whale—Harpooning Addiction–a performance-based art & advocacy model created by the playwright and his production company The Forty Hour Club—a collective in independent artist’s dedicated to bringing awareness to the issue of opiate addiction in the commercial fishing community of Maine and New England.

For more information about this event & production visit: