Joe Dick, P. I.

Joe Dick, P.I. is a serio-comedy about a hard drinking, nightmare-prone private investigator with a foul-tempered secretary (Lucinda Rosenthal) and a manic, medicated associate (Frank Funk) who are visited by a mysterious, seductive woman (Woman) who wishes to procure Dick's (and only Dick's) services: she wants him to watch her husband kill her. At first, Dick doesn't believe her, but when she offers him $10,000 for the job, he decides to "hear her out." When strange things start happening, like the Woman showing Dick an advertisement in the Yellow Pages for his agency (something he never did nor ever would do), he is both intrigued and put off by this mysterious woman. Soon Dick begins to realize that he is caught up in some forces bigger than he is, but he doesn't know exactly what those forces are or why he is caught up in them. Joe Dick, P.I.: The Perfect Crime is a "cat and mouse" detective story that runs on at least two levels: the level between the people who 'contract' the private investigator and the level between Joe Dick and himself. In the case of self-reflection, Joe Dick is both "cat" and "mouse." The play weaves in and out of realism all the way to its shocking conclusion.