TOO MANY HANDS ON DECK

An inventive but overstuffed
adaptation floods the narrative

The world premiere of DNAWorks‘ adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s “The Secret Sharer,” directed by Daniel Banks at Emerson Paramount Center offers a lot of intriguing approaches to this classic tale of two men who strongly resemble one another. 

Regarded as a novella or a long short story, “The Secret Sharer”—first published in Harper’s Magazine in 1910—is one of Conrad’s most admired—and most debated—works (another work, “The Heart of Darkness,” was the basis for the film Apocalypse Now). It’s the tale of a young and inexperienced captain who discovers a man named Leggatt clinging to the side of his ship. After the young captain brings him aboard, he tells the captain that he is accused of murder. He explains that while wrestling with another crewman over how best to protect the crew of their ship, the Sephora, during a violent storm, the other man died as the result of a freak wave. 

After the captain of the Sephora comes aboard to tell the captain of his intention to find and punish Leggatt, with no consideration for his possible innocence, the captain, who is also the narrator of the story, decides to hide Leggatt in his own state room and eventually takes his ship off course, despite the threat to his own career and reputation, to allow Leggatt to swim to land, undetected. 

This interpretation centers the narrative around a queer relationship between Leggatt and the captain. The production uses a powerful mix of nautical scene-setting (co-scenic designers Yu-Hsuan Chen and Ant Ma), lighting (Marika Kent), and sound design (Ray Archie) to place us on board the captain’s ship. The Narrator (Kenneth Norris) of the piece is the captain looking back on his past decision regarding the incident. He reads passages aloud from a table at the edge of the performance area with the audience sitting in chairs arranged in the shape of a ship around the floor-level space. With a gorgeous, haunting voice, Kwesi Johnson (the captain at the time of the tale) and Alvon Reed (Leggatt) perform the story, much of it in the form of dance which sometimes involves wrestling-like movements.

These two elements—the narration and the performance of Johnson and Reed—could create a powerful portrayal of moral complexity and identity. Less compelling and simply intrusive were the interruptions in which audience members are invited to share their own stories of a first crush, coming out, and similar experiences. Not enough time is allotted to encourage viewers to dig deeply into their memories during these interludes, and the suggested topics do not invite exploration of the kind of moral complexity of Conrad’s story. Each storytelling prompt is simply thrown out, and after one patron tells a story the play resumes (the night I was there, none of the stories were particularly interesting). If the creators really want interesting stories from the audience, they should allow more time for people to dig into their own memories and experience and find the courage to share those.

I can accept that The Secret Sharer examines queer identity, but it is also an examination of risk. Equally disruptive to the story’s themes is when audience members are divided into two teams—team captain and team Leggatt—and then invited to collectively create and perform dances that would express the emotions of the two men. This implies some kind of dichotomy between the two men which I don’t find in the story, and which actually contradicts what seems to be one of the central points—the captain sees in Leggatt a reflection of his own identity, one he is compelled to protect despite the requirements of his profession. 

Cramming this much audience participation into a little over an hour waters down (forgive the metaphor) what could have been a powerful performance. The numerous co-creators listed for this show may in fact be the source of this fragmented approach. I would argue that the narration and dance alone, given adequate space, with perhaps a different approach to a single type of audience participation, would have provided the kind of experience that have led so many to struggle with Conrad’s haunting tale of identity and risk.✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

artwork by Troy Lambert

The Secret Sharer
Emerson Paramount Center
Jackie Liebergott Black Box Theater
559 Washington St in Boston
ends on May 3, 2026
for tickets ($27.50+) visit Arts Emerson

for more shows, visit Theatre in Boston

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BIO: Lynne Weiss is a member of the Boston Theater Critics Association. Her reviews, travel tales, and progressively optimistic opinions are on her substack.