Maybe Dick a pun on Moby Dick gives a clue to the comic creativity, originality and sheer fun that the highly talented John Hewer brings to all his work. Having seen his hilarious impersonation of Tommy Cooper I had a hunch that this show would be worth seeing and I was right. It is very very good. I mean laugh out loud good. As in the Tommy Cooper show he uses props and puns, double entendre and running gags to create ninety minutes of highly entertaining, enjoyable and exhilarating live theatre. He does for the novel Moby Dick what Horrible Histories have done for history. And he deploys the Horrible Histories playbook of bawdy humour, slapstick comedy, songs, and exaggerated impersonations to vividly animate the novel for us in 2024. It’s an impressive achievement that deserves a wide audience. It’s fun and clever and well worth a night out. Maybe Dick is in my view a Definitely Dick.
This is a hugely outstanding one-man show. John Hewer plays 12 characters in different voices using a range of accents – Irish, American, English – he plays the concertina, dances the Tango, sings and narrates the novel as well as moving the stage props around whilst never for a moment losing the audience’s attention. You simply cannot take your eyes off him. He’s just one of those naturally funny people who mesmerise and magnetise the audience. He has a true stage presence. Even when he makes a verbal error he has the presence of mind and chutzpah to turn it into a joke to turn a minus into a plus. I for one love to see that in a performer. It shows maturity, courage and confidence. And the audience loves you all the more for embracing it.
Maybe Dick is unique in the way it tells the story of the novel Moby Dick through ingenious connections between seemingly unrelated cultural worlds.
In the course of ninety minutes, John Hewer references the Biblical story of Jonah and the Whale, the musical Grease (1978), the Reverend Dr Ian Paisley, the film Jaws (1975), Ronnie Corbett and the fork handles sketch, the tango from Some Like It Hot (1959), Rod Hull and Emu and much much more. These references are perfectly integrated into the narration of the show. These connections both animate the show and give it direction and unstoppable momentum. It takes real creative originality to pull this off but John Hewer succeeds with flying colours. Or should that be flying sails.
The use of props is superb. If there is a joke to be made from any prop no matter how seemingly unlikely you just know John has squeezed every last drop from every prop. I would go so far as to call him the prop king, he’s that good. If his visual gags owe much to his love of Tommy Cooper – think of the hats in the box routine – then his love of the Carry On films has inspired his love of puns and double entendre. Everything is fair game – nothing is sacred and no holds are barred, from the corny to the sophisticated if there’s a verbal joke he’ll do it. And what good fun they are too. He turns cliches, proverbs, words and situations we take for granted into astonishingly fresh newness. Like an old building given a jet water cleanup, we see it again as new. Wonderful. I guarantee you will start making your own connections having been shown the way by John. Like all great artists he wants us to see the works afresh and take all the joy we can from it. Go and see this wonderful performer before he becomes famous.
Review by John O’Brien
Herman Melville’s classic tale of revenge and retribution is retold in this inventive, comic retelling on the high seas from the company behind ‘Just Like That! The Tommy Cooper Show’ and ‘Dracula! One Bloody Fang After Another’.
Nantucket, 1841. Ishmael signs on to the Pequod, and witnesses the perils of nature, obsession, punning and physical comedy, as Captain Ahab conducts a reckless pursuit of the savage white whale, Moby Dick.
Hambledon Productions Presents
Maybe Dick
By John Hewer
Based on the novel ‘Moby-Dick’ by Herman Melville
Directed by Bruce Knight
19th – 23rd March 2024
https://www.whitebeartheatre.co.uk/
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