Oakland, Calif., actor and yoga teacher Mark Kenward has a whale of a tale in The Yoga of Moby Dick, a sharp, well-deconstructed meditation on the parallels between Herman Melville's epic novel, yoga and Kenward's own life and quest for enlightenment. An energetic storyteller, Kenward draws on a near-tragic childhood trauma, a fairly recent discovery of yoga spirituality and his new role as a parent to colour a faux lecture on Capt. Ahab's obsession with hunting down the giant white whale that bit off his leg. Presumably, if Ahab had studied yoga, he'd have learned to let go of his leg and get on with his life. The show is often amusing and occasionally thought-provoking, but it has a fatal flaw -- Kenward can't seem to let go of his own tale. Clinging to the story for a patience-testing 90 minutes on opening night, he let it drag down the entire performance.
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