Captain Noah and His Floating Zoo - Synopsis

Synopsis

A close reading of the Genesis story, Captain Noah and His Floating Zoo lightheartedly chronicles the adventures of Noah, charged by God to build an ark in order to preserve mankind and all the creatures of Earth.

The work opens with God voicing his displeasure with man ("There’s nothing but sinning, wickedness and violence there! / Remind me to wash mankind right out of my hair!"). Noah is then commanded to build an ark of gopher wood and fill it with pairs of animals—one male and one female—in spite of the constant mocking by the sinful citizens of Fun City ("Noah! Noah! Don’t do anymore! Your boat’s a laughing stock! / Ha! Ha! But Noah went right on building the ark, and his hammer went knock, knock, knock!"). Accompanied by a Latin-American samba rhythm, Noah and his family then load the ark with one pair of every animal imaginable "from antelope to zebra...one pair of each, just as the Lord had planned."

Aboard the ark, forty days and forty nights of ceaseless rain takes its toll, but the mood changes both dramatically and musically when the rain finally stops. Spirits begin to lift while the musical accompaniment shifts from percussive, raindrop-like figures to a swaying gesture reminiscent of gentle ocean waves. As the floodwaters subside, Noah enlists a terrified raven to scout for dry land. Following a short, unsuccessful survey of the watery landscape the affrighted raven succumbs to a moment of literary allusion croaking "Nevermore!" (invoking Edgar Allan Poe’s 1845 poem, The Raven).

The following week a dove is sent forth and subsequently returns with an olive branch, an indication of dry land. Shortly thereafter, God commands Noah to emerge from the ark ("Come out with your wife and your sons and daughters there / and set the animals free and the birds of the air"). The work closes with a waltz as God avows never to send another flood, a pledge confirmed by the newly created rainbow ("This is my promise to you, the rainbow overhead: violet, indigo, blue and green, all the colours that lie between / violet, indigo, blue and green, / yellow, orange and red!").