麻豆传媒映画

Daniel Arnold鈥檚 elevator pitch for The Ridiculous Darkness isn鈥檛 ridiculous or dark, but the concept isn鈥檛 immediately crystal clear, either.

Much of this stems from the fact that The Ridiculous Darkness 鈥� a stage play produced by Vancouver鈥檚 in association with Neworld Theatre 鈥� has a lot of moving parts to consider in order to fully grasp its audacity.

First, the concept: The Ridiculous Darkness is an adaptation of a funny, award-winning German radio play that was an adaptation of the thoroughly unfunny Oscar-winning film Apocalypse Now, which itself was an adaptation of Joseph Conrad鈥檚 Heart of Darkness (an acclaimed 1899 novella exploring colonialism and imperialism).

And then there鈥檚 the scale of it all: The production features actors Clint Andrew, Miranda Edwards, Emilie Leclerc, Munish Sharma, Amanda Sum, and Arnold, as well as 39 members from local community groups who represent groups of characters in the story.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a large-scale adaptation of a funny play about things that are not funny,鈥� Arnold quips in a recent phone interview.

The Ridiculous Darkness听鈥� which has its North American premiere this week at The Annex 鈥� is co-directed by Marisa Emma Smith and Nyla Carpentier and was adapted from Wolfram Lotz鈥檚 radio play by Arnold, a theatre artist, actor, and screenwriter who co-wrote the 2013 feature film and who, in The Ridiculous Darkness, will wear a giant 2D head (but more on that later).

On the surface, The Ridiculous Darkness is about two soldiers who go into a land that is foreign to them, with a mission is to retrieve a fellow soldier who has gone rogue. But, 鈥渢hat really isn鈥檛 what the play is about,鈥� says Arnold. 鈥淭he play is really about the journey to go and find that soldier, and how these two soldiers encounter a number of different local inhabitants and different groups in a military camp and village. It鈥檚 about encounters with what is foreign to us, and how we bridge boundaries of difference.鈥�

Arnold and Smith were inspired to invite community groups to participate in the play after enjoying a similar type of production in New York City.

Participating groups include Theatre Terrific, Tetsu Taiko, Richmond Youth Honour Choir, Downtown East Side Street Market Society, Downtown East Side Vendors Collective, Afghan Benevolent Association of BC, Realwheels Theatre, and the East Van Powwow Crew. Thirty per cent of all ticket revenue will go directly to the participating organizations.

Arnold notes that the play is 鈥渨orking against isolation and trying to create a project that is by its very nature needing people to come together who wouldn鈥檛 normally come together, and create something, and then sharing that with the city. It鈥檚 our version of 鈥榖y the city, for the city.鈥欌��

Oh, and what about the aforementioned giant head that Arnold wears in the play? It鈥檚 all pretty meta: 鈥淚n the play, I play the writer Wolfram Lotz, but, at the time, I鈥檓 also doing the adaptation of the radio play to the stage. So I am not only the writer of the play, but I鈥檓 playing the original writer of a play.鈥� He chuckles. 鈥淪o in the way that this is an adaptation of an adaptation, my role is of the writer playing the writer who is playing the writer 鈥� which is why I鈥檝e put Wolfram Lotz鈥檚 giant head on mine.鈥�

Ridiculous.

听

Alley Theatre鈥檚 The Ridiculous Darknessruns Nov. 11-19 at The Annex (823 Syemour St.). Tickets at