Playwright Michael Gorman and The Forty Hour Club are excited to invite you to Cove Street Arts in Portland on Thursday, June 17 for a performance of selected songs and scenes from this summer’s upcoming production of “Never Leaving this Boat”—(Fragments of a Blues Opera).

The performance, entitled “Give up the Spear,” will take place in the gallery’s parking lot from 6:00-6:30 pm. It will feature live music, original songs, dramatic monologues and scenes (including language and imagery from Moby Dick), movement, a mythical chorus of ancient whale hunters and modern-day commercial fishermen and a rolling boat. In the event of rain, the performance will take place in the Gallery.

Buoyed by the enduring spirit of the blues and propelled by the provocative energy of street theater, “Give up the Spear” taps into Gorman’s larger body of work and epic art and advocacy project “Chasing the New White Whale” that directly addresses the opiate crisis in the commercial fishing community of Maine and beyond.

Raw and edgy, and minimally rehearsed, the performance offers a privileged first glimpse of the upcoming opera, as well as an exciting window into Forty Hour Club’s developmental process.

The event is FREE and open to the public, with donations being accepted to help support The Forty Hour Club’s ongoing project “Chasing The new White Whale—Harpooning Addiction”.