Pittsfield — Following in the (literal) footsteps of her great-great-great grandfather, who spent the summers of 1850 and 1851 seeking solace in the Berkshire Hills while penning one whale of a tale in his study off of Holmes Road, Elizabeth Doss will descend upon Arrowhead on Saturday, July 15 to see “ReWritten, ”an immersive performance co-created by Matthew Cumbie and Tom Truss. Doss will also participate in a post-show conversation—moderated by Jana Laiz, artist-in-residence of the Berkshire County Historical Society—hinging upon the work being done by myriad artists to connect with and further Herman Melville’s legacy in the Berkshires and beyond.
“We are so happy to welcome back Tom and Matt and the ‘ReWritten’ crew for a third year,” said BCHS Executive Director Lesley Herzberg, who has enjoyed a front-row seat to the performance artists’ exploration of the intimate relationship between Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne (who met on the steep slope of Monument Mountain while escaping a thunderstorm in August of 1850) through dance, live music, projection, art installations, and text moving in and around the grounds of Arrowhead—Melville’s home between 1850 and 1863. “Each year’s performance is a unique experience,” Herzberg added in a nod to Truss and Cumbie’s decision to intentionally weave the stories of those women central to the authors’ lives into this year’s iteration.
“It’s unusual, as there are about 1,800 of Hawthorne’s letters in a library somewhere … Harvard, to be exact,” Truss told The Edge in 2021, pointing to correspondence from Hawthorne to Melville that has vanished—a fact that not only gave rise to multiple theories as to the whereabouts of the missing letters, but also inspired a re-writing of that history.
Before the simple yet stunning backdrop of Melville’s red barn, the very place in which he and Hawthorne regularly sequestered themselves to smoke cigars and drink brandy among the rafters, Truss and Cumbie present a dramatic response to their own rhetorical question: What happens when you say no to a dream when you want to say yes?
“ReWritten” blurs time and reimagines an intergenerational queer love story that influenced American literature. In keeping with the co-creators’ reverence for storytelling, the immersive performance (dubbed an intergenerational queer love story) offers audience members multiple points of entry—both to the reimagined relationship between Melville and Hawthorne as well as the physical environs in which it unfolds (within clear sight, when looking due north, of the inspiration for Moby-Dick: the distant curve of Mount Greylock in which the author swore he spied the hump of a great whale).
The addition of Doss to the lineup adds complexity to the impending production that, five days prior to opening night, was not in the cards. Beyond this mere bout of serendipity, the Austin-based performer, playwright, director, and great-great-great-granddaughter of Herman Melville uses the author as a subject in her most recent work, “Poor Herman,” to speculate on the line between utter genius and epic failure in us all. In her play, which debuted in May 2016 at Off Center Theatre in New York City, Doss unearths the life of Herman Melville, who, she posits, wrote America’s best and worst novels back to back in 1850 and 1851. The production, which will be staged at Arrowhead in 2024, considers what compelled Melville—who was struggling to salvage his declining reputation while trying to feed a growing family—to write a virtually unreadable book, “Pierre” or the “Ambiguities,” in the aftermath of initial failure among critics and readers when “Moby-Dick” was published in October 1851.
A serendipitous parallel can be drawn between Doss’ play and this year’s version of “Re-Written,” both of which give voice to the unsung players in Melville’s life—namely his mother, wife, sisters, and daughters, each of whom not only contributed to his fame and flourishing but also endured his decline and demise.
As for this weekend’s slate of performances on the eponymous ground where Melville himself was reputed to have found copious Native American arrowheads while working the fields adjacent to his home: “It should be a powerful performance, as always,” said Herzberg.
NOTE: “ReWritten” returns to Herman Mellvile’s Arrowhead for a third summer of performances with new and exciting additions. Performances are July 13 through 16 at 7:30 p.m. (opening night is sold out), and ticket prices range from $10 to $30; for more information or to purchase tickets, visit berkshirehistory.org.
