
The Wake of Dick Johnson

The Wake of Dick Johnson is a 2016 theatrical play and feature film produced by Alt Variety and distributed by Amazon. It was written, directed by, and stars Luke H. Walker. The story takes place at the wake of its protagonist Dick Johnson, who returns from death to bitterly ruminate about the afterlife, which according to Johnson is a bleak and endless loop of all the world's agonies. The feature film was adapted for screen from the 2016 off-broadway play––also written by, directed and starring Walker––and produced under the same title.
Plot.
Shortly after his death, Dick Johnson returns from the afterlife to rant about drinking, women, and the evils of mankind responsible for the eternal torment his new existence. According to Johnson, death is an alternate universe where the evils of terrestrial life throughout all history abrade the walls of space-time, leaving behind trillions of minuscule punctures and abrasions in the same way sound is recorded on a vinyl record. In death, Johnson is tormented by the ethereal visage of his long deceased uncle Willy, who habitually tortured and raped Johnson in his youth. Johnson describes this astral plane as one where only the most heinous evils throughout all time are collected and merge as one; for Johnson it is a tailored version of hell where he and his uncle Willy are inescapably intertwined for all eternity.
Play.
The play first premiered in June 2016 in the basement of Maggie Mae's Pub in Queens, NY. In spring 2019, Walker produced a second full-length run of the play in a small cabin in his back yard at his home in Charlotte, NC, where he moved shortly after the play's initial premiere. It was there the play began to receive attention and received its first critical review by Charlotte based publication, QC Nerve. The publication described the play as "[a] comic, eloquent and upsetting rumination on a meaningless universe where even death will not relieve the pain of living." and cited Walker's "distinctive voice" as "poetic, profane and dark as a starless night."
In October, 2019 The Wake of Dick Johnson returned to New York at Performance Space 122, this time Walker incorporated a live score composed by Ashville, NC based musical duo Okapi (Lindsey Miller, Scott Gorski). There, the play received yet another laudatory review by Broadwayworld.com, which described the play as "gory," "disturbing," "ghastly," "graphic, and grotesque," the review went on to say "this off-broadway show is gory, freaky, and downright alarming." Broadwaywrold described namesake protagonist, Dick Johnson, as a character you instantly hate, but "relatable in the most chilling way". Time Out New York added The Wake of Dick Johnson to its top-13 list of Halloween events. In December 2019 QC Nerve voted The Wake of Dick Johnson Critic's Pick "Best Of the Year 2019" for best one man show.
Controversy.
Although he starred in the first three runs of the play, Walker never intended to play the part of Dick Johnson. The role was initially planned to be performed by his friend, and amateur actor, Michael P. Varian. After almost a year of rehearsals, and only months before the show's planned debut, Varian text messaged Walker from a Georgia rehab clinic informing him he could no longer play the role, claiming it had caused him to have a nervous breakdown. The play had a similar effect on Walker's former girlfriend, a minor social media influencer, who reacted so violently to the show's Charlotte premiere, she interrupted a post performance musical act on microphone to publicly disavow the play. She then took a further step of ratifying her position by promoting a large-scale social media smear campaign against him. The third incident of controversy was during the third run at ps122. So shocked was the theater director and manager over the graphic dialog and savagery of the character Uncle Willy, they threaten to prevent further performances unless Walker was prepared censor the entire play. Walker declined and the shows went on, but many attempts were made by the theater to prevent the remainder of shows from occurring. The third scheduled performance was canceled only hours before showtime on account of a bogus contractual loophole related to fire proofing certificates. During the remaining days, many other blatant acts of retaliation were carried out by theater management and staff including regular incidents of weaponized lighting, deliberately bungled sound and intermission cues, and frequent brazen disruptions of the performance by staff-members. Theater management also maliciously discarded thousands of dollars worth of programs and printed literature related to the show without Walker's consent. These absurd acts of sabotage were later highlighted by the revelation that paying ticket holders were blocked from entering the theater for the entire duration of the play's short run.
Reception.
Although described as disturbing, grotesque, and highly controversial, to date the play received unanimous critical praise, calling it profound, poetic and fearlessly bleak. It was listed in Time Out New York Top-13 Halloween theater events along-side many world renowned plays such as The Glass Menagerie, Little Shop of Horrors, and Sleep No More.