LIVERPOOL playwright Dhanil Ali offers an alarmed expression when first asked to describe the plot of his latest comedy. "Plot?" he gasps. "Oh, dear. It's an absurdist play, really."
Yesterday, his cast were rehearsing his play Gideon March which under further questioning turns out to have some sort of story behind it.
Gideon March, he explains, is his main character's name (presumably a combination of veteran TV detectives Colonel March of Scotland Yard and Commander Gideon of the Yard). "He's a one-eyed, one-armed police detective who can stop crooks with a withering glance."
Set in 1945, Gideon is in charge of Scotland Yard's Unsolved Mysteries Department and sets out to solve a few during the course of the madcap events.
He even gets helps from real-life Liverpool comedian Arthur Askey. "Well, one of the cases is set in Liverpool." The cases tackled are a mixed bunch, typically one being The Case of the Werewolf of London Bridge.
"It's a bit like Dick Barton meets the Goons," says Ali, a fan of old-time radio. His last play Hancock's Lost Half Hours was written in tribute to the original scripts of Galton and Simpson and earned the approval of the writers. The play did sell-out business at the Casa.
Gideon March will also go on at The Casa in Hope Street and feature the same lead actor, Mike Howl in the title role (he had played Hancock, in the earlier show).
Diminutive Liverpool actor Chris Darwin, still best known for his appearance in the TV series Boys From the Blackstuff) is playing Gideon's assistant Pip as well as doubling up in the Askey role. Emily Jackson is Gideon's secretary Maggie.
Dingle-born Ali, 47, turned writer after some years spent in the music industry producing dance records ("not the Victor Silvester type although I sometimes wish they had been") and his writing influences have been mainly comic ones .
