2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick: A Dirk Darrow Investigation

Reviewed by Alice

It was a cold night, unusually so for this time of year, when I reached my destination. The lights sparkled in the Gluttony trees, as an eager audience of 55 were lead into the shadowy under-Bally. Then we saw him. A single spotlight illuminated the figure of Dirk Darrow appropriately dressed in a trench coat and suspenders. Darrow, a private Dick, (that’s a detective to you folks who do not live in 1932) shared with us a story so full of twists, turns and noir intrigue that it could only be expressed using magic tricks, puns and mass audience participation.

Some say Tom Motley’s Dirk Darrow is a fully formed character, who seems to have just stepped out of a hard-boiled detective novel, and after the performance I witnessed I am inclined to agree with them. The post-war American accent Motley has assigned to Dirk is perfect and especially impressive when going off script to heckle the audience. It was clever, as clever as a nerd playing chess in a library, for Motley to incorporate audience members into the performance. However, these parts of the show were sometimes awkward and long-winded.

Magic tricks, like thieves in a marketplace, were scattered throughout the show. One was quite remarkable, a card trick where Dirk told a story using all the cards in the deck. Most of the other tricks were not complicated but were surprisingly enjoyable.  The simplicity of the tricks allowed the audience to easily comprise theories as to how they were accomplished and it was all anyone could talk about leaving Darrow’s shadowy world.

Motley’s story-telling moved at an incredibly fast pace and I wish that he would have decelerated, just a bit, so we could have more thoroughly enjoyed his encyclopaedic knowledge of noir mystery slang. The flow of the performance needed work as the transitions from one part of the narrative to another felt clumsy and messy. The script, written by Motely, is unbelievably creative and I know with the input of a good director this show could be tightened and developed into something more than just ‘pretty good’.

Well, that’s all from me, doll-face. If you like the idea of diving into the seedy world of noir comedy, a place full of fun accents, cigarettes and dick innuendo, 2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick: A Dirk Darrow Investigation is the performance for you.

2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick: A Dirk Darrow Investigation, The Bally – Gluttony, March 7 to March 9