A CHIMP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

GREAT Apes was described by one reviewer as ‘Planet Of The Apes meets 1984’ — a ‘big idea’ novel by Will Self (but don’t let that put you off) about humanity’s place in the evolutionary chain.

Now Daily Mail theatre critic Patrick Marmion has winningly adapted it for the stage.

It concerns Simon Dykes, a dissolute artist who wakes up after a drug-filled night of clubbing and loveless sex to a world where humans and chimpanzees (which share 98 per cent of their DNA) have swapped places.

Dykes, convinced that he is human but suffering what everybody else believes is a psychotic episode, is taken to a psychiatric unit. There he comes under the care of celebrity shrink and alpha male chimp Zack Busner (the excellent Truly going ape: Ruth Lass Ruth Lass). In a world where everything is upsidedown, it’s only right that a male doctor is played by a woman.

Busner scoffs at the idea that humans could be more evolved beings than chimps and Dykes becomes a sort of performing monkey for the medics, one of several fine comic inversions in the play.

Gradually, Dykes rediscovers his ‘chimpunity’ by hooting loudly, dispensing with his clothing and rutting in public. Sounds like most town centres on a Saturday night . . .

Bryan Dick captures Dykes’s confusion and neatly parlays his need to be part of a pack.

The cast (most in multiple roles) are good at monkeying around, and Oscar Pearce, in his directorial debut, keeps things rattling along, with only occasional dips in pace. A few plot threads don’t tie up and the ending feels abrupt, but Mr Marmion’s script has several laugh-out-loud lines in this entertaining monkey business.