800 Words, The Transmigration of Phillip K Dick at The Playwrights' Center on 5/29/09

By: David de Young

(From left) Kimberly Richardson, Maggie Chestovich, Luverne Seifert, Mo Perry, Ryan Parker Knox, Clarence Wethern, Allison Moore. PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin McLaughlin

A mind-trippy but very human drama, Victoria Stewart’s play 800 Words, the Transmigration of Philip K. Dick opened Thursday at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis in a Workhaus Collective production  directed by Jeremy Wilhelm. The title (we learn during the action of the play) comes from the late Canadian science fiction writer A.E. van Vogt, who said that in order to keep your fiction engaging, you should introduce a new idea every 800 words.

800 Words a smart new work, informational, thought-provoking, and not just a little bit weird. The play, which tells part of the life story of Philip K Dick, the novelist and short story writer most famous for having penned the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (which was turned into the film Bladerunner) is a must see for Science Fiction fans. (We also learn from the play, if we did not know before, that “SF”, not Sci-fi is the politically correct abbreviation.) PKD’s stories have also served as the basis for other films including Total Recall and Minority Report. (Incidentally, Take-Up Productions has arranged screenings of all three of these films at the new theater The Trylon, June 1^st, 8^th and 15th.)

In the title role, Luverne Seifert is arguably fantastic as Dick, portraying him sympathetically as more than just likable, despite his frequent bouts with paranoia and possibly schizophrenia. In the opening scene we see him writing in his office taking down words his long dead twin sister Jane (Maggie Chestovich) is whispering into his ears. The centerpiece of the set, a 12 foot in diameter carpeted Lazy Susan of sorts (also designed by director Wilhelm) is spun around by the actors during scene changes, and its various positions during the play seem to suggest different periods in Dick’s life, most centering around his office. The action of the play jumps around between March 3^rd, 1982 (the date of Dick’s death) and what Dick called "two-three-seventy four" or “2-3-74” to refer to February and March of 1974 during which he said he experienced a series of visions, some of which he wrote about in a later novel, VALIS.

How much of this play is true history? My post show research into Dick’s life leads me to believe it’s more historically accurate than I had initially thought. But there is still plenty of pure fantasy, and Dick eventually is shown to be just a character in a play when “the author,” aka the playwright Victoria Stewart (played by Allison Moore) makes an appearance turning what was already a bit of a Total Recall-style mind fuck even more meta. “I write meta theatrical plays about historical figures” the author character says, pulling out the actual script of what we are watching (during a discussion about whether or not free will exists, no less). (This echoes an intriguing line of Dick's himself from earlier in the play: “We are in this groove. God is the groove. Our lives are the needle in the groove.”

Anchored by Luverne, the supporting cast is also quite strong. Playing multiple roles is Ryan Park Knox as the Secret Agent Man and European writer Stanislaw Lem (again a real historical figure.) Of particular interest is a scene late in the play when Knox actually plays each of his characters back to back without leaving the stage, his hat being on or off the trigger of his insta-role metamorphosis. Maggie Chestovich also plays at least three roles, including the aforementioned Jane, Stanislaw Lem’s assistant, and the teenage neighbor girl who sells Dick his drugs.

Clarence Wethern brings a refreshing matter-of-factness to his role as Jim, Dick’s literary agent. Mo Perry has some moving scenes with Dick as his ex-wife Tessa that show us yet another dimension of Dick's troubled life. Kimberly Richardson is delightful as puppetmaster to Sascha, Dick’s cat.

Subtle care was taken with the musical selections, including the use of The Beatles’ “She Said She Said” which evokes psychedelic mind games. There are also some great Patti Smith and Linda Ronstadt references. As all over the place as this play goes, it still holds together in one cohesive piece very well. 

800 Words is being produced in a limited run ending Sunday, June 7^th, so don’t delay. Tickets and more information available at http://www.workhauscollective.org

Location Info: The Playwrights' Center
Artist Info: The Workhaus Collective

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