This play resonates with contemporary concerns, portraying characters grappling with private obsessions, feeling isolated from necessary support, and experiencing a heightened sense of pressure. The presence of the siblings, sister and brother, proceeds minute by minute through held breaths and painful and repetitive movements. I was mesmerised.
The production of dog is powerful theatre. Throughout the significance of the sound design, Aisling Bermingham’s choices make this experience even more deeply felt. The waves of both diegetic and non-diegetic soundscape manifests the unspoken between and within the two characters. The entire world of the play hums in waves carefully and beautifully orchestrated.
Speaking with Shayne, the playwright, before seeing the production, they spoke of theatre as the authentic medium where the audience could have a safe way of witnessing something that for the writer was very real. A way in to understand what are now often identified as hidden illnesses. The theatre audience can see them as authentic, confronting immediate circumstances.
The play’s character of sister in particular, lives with the mental ill health of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder which is characterised by intrusive thoughts and compulsive actions and rituals. As we enter the theatre, the pervasive smell of Dettol sets an immediate tone of clinical obsession, reflecting the world of the protagonist. This antiseptic scent underscores the character’s ritualistic bathing, a desperate attempt to cleanse themselves of imaginary germs they believe threaten their lives and the safety of their loved ones.
The play symbolically represents the playwright’s journey towards insight and growth in managing their own mental health. Despite this exploration, we are left in the dark about the specific thoughts driving the protagonist’s obsessive-compulsive behaviours, highlighting the complexity and often hidden nature of the disorder.KXT Broadway venue is the perfect space for this intimate sharing. Director Kim Hardwick’s sensitive capture of held time and place are in the melting moments also as time dissolves through delicately plotted lighting shifts of Frankie Clarke’s aesthetics. It is ultimately confronting to bear witness to Lanneike Denne’s character’s vulnerability and her performance was both mesmerising and disturbing.
I commend also the performance of Jack Patten as brother. Raw, real, empathetic moments. He struggles with alcohol and his externalising behaviour, physical and dangerous, covers up his grieving the breakup of a relationship. They live in close proximity, but they inhabit different worlds. The character of brother introduces a dog into the situation, a heartfelt attempt to form a family bond and bring a sense of normalcy and connection to the chaos.
CONTENT WARNINGS:
The production of dog explores sensitive content and mature themes around OCD, depression, mental ill health, bodily harm, alcohol addiction, suicidal ideation, animal cruelty and grief.
It also includes: smoking of herbal cigarettes, flashing/strobe lights, fake blood, consumption of prop beers, strong antiseptic fragrance and full frontal nudity.
dog depicts contamination OCD in real time (including the portrayal of triggers and compulsions). The play has been developed in collaboration with a mental health coordinator.
Recommended for ages 18+
Production photography by Clare Hawley
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