Dirk Gently Play Review

We all saw a play last night, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It got us all in the theatery mood, and we've decied to put on our own play, here in Pellmellia. Expect to see our 'Parrots of Penzance' before Chripsmix.

Here is the review of the play we say. The play was 'Dirk', based on Douglas Adams 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. The play's website is www.DirkUSA.com, And I urge everyone who'd be into that sort of thing to go see it.

The plot is far too complicated to summarize, suffice to say it is a 'Ghost-Time-Travel-Murder-Mystery-Romantic-Comedy'), so I urge you to either see the play, read the book, or read Ray Friesen's Official Graphic Novel Adaptaion, which doesn't exist yet, to get the back story.

We set out, one bold November morn, in search of entertainment, so interesting, that we would be, well, entertained. We settled on 'Dirk' not least because I had bought tickets several weeks earlier. It's about a 2 hour drive from my residences to NoHo (North Hollywood/ a spoof of Soho) where the play took place. I wish I had taken pictures, but I didn't, so I'll have to describe things to you.

Outside the theater, (That is to say, in the big glass windows so you couldn't actually touch them) was a computer displaying 3d rotating sofa graphics, as well a giant green actual sofa, that was jammed in the display case. They also had big signs saying 'DIRK', some reviews, and some of the pictures all ready seen on their website.

All of the following info, and most of the proceeding is spoilery, so beware.

Inside it was not so much a theater, as an art gallery, filled with art that was not my cup of tea (I prefer coffee, which I don't even like. Hot chocolate then.) They play itself took place up the stairs and in a loft, which at first filled me with dread, but turned out to be delightful. It was a very small theater, perhaps 50 to a hundred seats. About the size of a decent sized living room (IE my living room). There was a small bare stage, with a giant white background, on which the projected backgrounds that the characters interacted with, (opening windows, driving cars, etc) as well as some video clips (more on them as they occur.) On either side was a section of Dirk's office, which was raised several feet and you had to climb some stairs. Janice, Dirk's secretary, whenever she sat at her desk (on stage right, next to where I sat,) was ripping up a dictionary, and occasionally making paper airplanes and throwing them into the audience (I caught and kept one). The phone was on a little table that never moved, and was used as the phone in the apartment of all 5 people with phones.

I'll assume most if not all of you are familiar with the plot of 'Dirk Gently', so I'll mostly be talking about where it deviates and what they did differently. First off, the actors were wonderful. Reg was extremely funny (a lot of the comedy came from him), Richard was delightfully flustered, Dirk was not at all how I pictured him (thin, glasses, moustache, no hat, and very Noir) but exceedingly wonderful. The guy who played Michael (as well as detective Perkins, who delighted in stringing yellow caution tape everywhere) reminded me quite a bit of Alan Rickman, although perhaps an Alan Rickman that has fallen down a flight of stairs.)

All the actors on the pic I've enclosed were in the play, save for Gilks, who was played by a black gentleman whose name I didn't catch. He was completely bald, except for a tiny nubbin of ponytail, which was pretty cool looking. He did some silly kung fu moves on several occasions (when asking the maid if she would find his silly motions unusual, and when the ghost of gordon was knocking magazines around).

Dirk came into the play at the beginning as opposed to the middle, wandering around the cambridge dinner (perhaps that was him analyzing Richard under hypnosis?) using a TV remote to pause the actors, and explain who the characters were. Reg did some actual magic tricks on stage, which was quite fun. Reg wore a quite long scarf, but I'm not sure if this was meant to be a nod to Doctor Who or not. The electric monk was missing, for understandable reasons (even though he's one of my favorites, I can't imagine how they could have done the play with him.) This made Michael a double murderer, which I think worked alright. They mentioned the new editor of fathom often, calling him Albert Ross (in the book, I believe he is usually just called A.K. Ross) which when said out loud sounds just like 'albatross' (what flavor is it?).

The scene where Richard explains Scroédinger's cat was done on screen, ala a 50's educational film (very funny.) After the intermission, Dirk did a brief recap, reminding the audience of some pertinent facts. Then, they had the 'Recap for Americans' which was brilliant. A gruff voice said ' previously, on Dirk Gently" then there were a bunch of zooming titles, explosions, nearly naked people, and finally Dirk, Richard and Michael all in sombreros and moustaches pointing guns at each other. Hysterical! Prolly one of the funniest moments in the whole play.

When Dirk hypnotizes Richard, instead of having him jump in the canal, he has him burst into a big song and dance number (beside the seaside) and all the characters came on stage for the chorus line. Then, Dirk snaps Richard out of it, and shows him the video of Richard under hypnosis, and Dirk and secretary were teaching him the lines, and choreographing his dance (very funny. Gave the secretary some good bits)

The cut the scene toward the end where Dirk visits Coleridge, instead having Reg just say that he did it. The alien ghost is explaining how he tried to influence people, and Coleridge "when he was very relaxed..." (big laughs). In our universe, Kublai Khan is allready just the 54 (or whatever) verses, Reg saying he went back and edited it. The ghost makes a stunned face, and Reg says 'it seems I'm the only one who read your Biography. Oh, it was quite good! (after just saying how horrible it was)

Once they decide to help the alien ghost, and Dirk figures out the alien tricked them, instead of somehow saving the day by talking to coleridge, Dirk has Reg do some complicatedly explained time thing, trapping the ghost, they fight and Dirk knocks him out. The sofa getting stuck (which they did show) was not satisfactorily explained, in my opinion. Richard, disbelieving the whole play, finally gets into it and says for Reg to "Reverse the polarity of the feedback loop of the flux capacitor to power the TARDIS (or some time travel cliches like that) and Reg replies 'It's only a bloody abacus" (big laughs)

Play ends with the roderick the cat never being lost, and Dirk mentions a butterfly (in such a way we realize he means the butterfly flapping it's wings create a hurricane, and the butterfly killed in the past changes the future (ala 'Sound of Thunder" (the book or Simpsons Halloween episode, not the movie))

Afterwards, they had a Q&A (I think a high school drama group had paid extra for that, and I wasn't supposed to be there. Still, no one yelled at me to leave, and I did ask some good questions.) The idea to do this play was the actor who play's Dirk's idea, and he is a big DNA fan. I didn't get a chance to talk to him, but I bet he would be completely willing to do a fourm chat.) Someone should try to get ahold of him.

I got my playbook signed by a few of the actors, and learned that if I had come the night before I could have met one of the guys who worked with DNA to write this adaptation, (some of the new bits were in fact Douglas' idea, who himself admitted that the ending was confusing.)

So, great actors, great script (a few things here and there I could nitpick, the ending is still confusing, and deleting the Electric Monk caused a few minor plot gaps) but all in all, I thought it was wonderful. 9 thumbs up.