Interview: Arvind Ethan David on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Live Show
- Immersive Rumours
- 33 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Image: The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which opens at Hammersmith's Riverside Studios later this month, is an immersive stage version of Douglas Adams' classic five-part trilogy. Co-created and written by Arvind Ethan David (Lenny Henry’s Boy With Wings, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency on Netflix), the show sees audiences join Arthur Dent, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Fenchurch and more on a search for answers to the mystery of Life, the Universe and Everything, armed only with a towel and one very depressed robot.
Ahead of the show's opening, we spoke to Arvind Ethan David to find out more about why an immersive adaptation felt like the right format for the experience, how he's balanced writing a show that appeals to both life-long and new fans, and where audiences can expect to find themselves once they've hitched a ride and escaped the destruction of Earth with seconds to spare.
Immersive Rumours: Hi Arvind! Thanks for speaking with us today. Do you mind introducing yourself and explaining the part you’ve played in bringing this new immersive staging of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to life?
Arvind Ethan David: I'm the writer and co-creator of the show. I had the idea that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy wanted to be a piece of immersive theatre back in 2020, in the dark days of lockdown and pandemic, and started reaching out to friends and potential collaborators. Five years later, here we are with an amazing creative team and company, and it's about to open. It's exhilarating and terrifying in about equal measure...
IR: Your relationship with Douglas Adams and his work stretches back to your teenage years. Do you mind explaining how you first came to meet, and tell us a bit about the impact that relationship has had on your life, both personal and professional?
AED: We met when I was 19 and adapted his other masterwork series, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, as a student play. He came to see it and took an interest in me, and without really intending to, started my career. 30 years later, I've made dozens of episodes of television, written many books, produced many movies and made a lot of theatre, but I can still trace everything I've ever achieved, and most of the major professional relationships in my life back to that moment and the time I spent with Douglas in the subsequent decade. He didn't necessarily mean to be a mentor, but that was the effect of him, like a comet streaking through my universe; he took me along with him, debris in his wake and happy to be so.
Image: The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
IR: While Hitchhiker’s has been adapted into various mediums over the years (including a TV series, film and video game), it’s been a long time since there’s been a true stage adaptation of the series. When you first began having conversations about creating this show, was it always envisioned to be an immersive production, and why did that feel like the right choice for this adaptation?
AED: The problem with adapting Hitchhiker's Guide into most conventional mediums is that it is not a conventional linear narrative. It doesn't want to fit in a three-act structure; it won't be pinned down by Robert McKee. So you need a medium that is as mad, inventive, and fluid as the story itself is. That's immersive theatre.Â
The hero of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is Arthur Dent, an ordinary man to whom extraordinary things - most of which he does not understand - happen, apparently at random. This is a perfect hero for immersive theatre, because the audience gets to BE Arthur. They get to experience an out-of-control universe that makes no linear sense, but has a tone and a feel and a shifting perspective that invites them to turn their lives upside down.
IR: The show is taking over quite a large chunk of Riverside Studios when it opens, which is fitting for a show that takes place in several corners of the universe. Where can audiences expect to find themselves, besides in the Horse and Groom pub, frantically trying to finish their drinks before Earth explodes?
AED: That would be telling, but the Heart of Gold and a Vogon Cargo Ship are our modes of transport, and we may or may not get to swing by a legendary planet inhabited by someone whose name is not important.
Image: The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
IR: When writing the show, how did you find trying to balance creating a story that’s both satisfying for long-time fans - who are incredibly familiar with the source material - and accessible for those new to the story?
AED: The secret to adapting Douglas Adams, is you can't adapt Douglas Adams. His genius was his own. He knew better than anyone that when taking his story into a new medium, you had to reinvent it, and he was blissfully unbothered by consistency or "canon". To Douglas, Hitchhiker's Guide was the well that kept giving, that allowed for infinite variations (and infinite improbability). We've taken the same approach.Â
All the favorites - Arthur, Zaphod, Ford, Trillian, Marvin, etc - are there, but they aren't just reciting the greatest hits. They are alive and telling a story as it happens to them, for the very first time. There's plenty of easter eggs and deep love and respect for the genius of the original; the fans will see that, but there is also our attempt to tell the story the way that Douglas might have told it if he was around today, and that means doing something new and making it accessible to folks who have never heard of Arthur Dent.Â
IR: Finally, with rehearsals now underway, how has it been seeing the show’s script come to life with the live cast and creative team all under one roof?
AED: I've made 9 movies, 4 musicals, dozens of episodes of television, written books, graphic novels, radio plays and board games. Many of those things have won awards and done well. I can honestly say I've never done anything as challenging, exciting and entirely mental as this. The cast and creative team (led by our directors Georgia Clarke-Day, David Frias Robles and Simon Evans) are world-class, and giving their all. Every day is exhausting and inspiring. Or to put it another way, full of excitement, adventure and really wild things...
IR: Thanks for taking the time to speak with us today, Arvind. We’ll be sure to grab our best towel ahead of coming down to Riverside Studios later this month.
Photos: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Live Show will run from 15th November to 15th February 2026 at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. Standard tickets are priced from £42.00, and VIP tickets are priced from £72.00. For more information and to book tickets, visit hitchhikerslive.com
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