A performance by Really Large Numbers
Developed while in residency in the LES Studio Program
Whale Star is a dreamy, musical performance by Really Large Numbers which takes place on board a sailing ship fashioned from a laboratory table. In this piece, The Captain (Chad Stayrook) and Figurehead (Julia Oldham) sing a duet about their shared pursuit to capture each others individual perception of a whale seen in both the sea and stars.
The Captain is tracking a whale in the sea, while his ship’s wayward Figurehead has fallen madly in love with the navigational star Mira, a point in the equatorial whale constellation Cetus. By day, the Captain records a ship’s log revealing his confusion and conflicting desires as his navigational efforts are mysteriously thwarted. When night falls and the Captain sleeps, the Figurehead undoes all of his sailing progress in pursuit of her beloved whale star in the skies above.