1-Man Outdoor Show Benefits The Montauk Lighthouse

MONTAUK, NY — A special benefit one-man show Saturday will donate proceeds toward the preservation of the Montauk Lighthouse.

Gabriel Portuondo will perform "The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" outdoors at the lighthouse at 6:30 p.m.

According to a release, the epic ballad, written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge during the Romantic era and published in 1798, comes to life in this mysterious and spellbinding journey starring Gabriel Portuondo.

"Coleridge's stylistic use of narrative, personification, and repetition create epic rolls of emotional impact, bursts of foreboding, a palpable feeling of danger and deja vu, great looming shadows, and visions of the supernatural," the post said.

Described as a "terrifying and miraculous tale," the performance centers on an "infamous albatross" who is shot and killed by the mariner with his crossbow.

"In a tormented rage, his shipmates hang the great carcass of the seabird around the mariner's neck as a heavy burden of his guilt. This prompts the wrath and hostility of the spirits, who visit our mariner's ship from the land of 'mist and snow' on their ghostly vessel. As the crew members die one by one, only the mariner lives on — cursed by the eyes of the corpses surrounding him, as slimy things curl and stew and glisten, covering the rotting floorboards of the ship," the release said.

According to the Lighthouse's website, the Montauk Point Lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse in New York State, authorized by the Second Congress, under President George Washington, in 1792. Construction began on June 7, 1796, and was completed on November 5, 1796; it still serves as an aid to navigation, the site said. The Montauk Point Lighthouse was designated a National Historic Landmark on March 5, 2012.

For tickets, click here.