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Review: Stray Dogs, Theatre503

What would you be doing now if you had to take up the same job that your grandfather - your father’s father had? I would be a faceless taxman, working in the civil service bureaucracy. For Jacob (Graham Butler) it is Executioner, like his father and his father before him. Taking the job was a choice… well it was in that it was to take up the sword and chop heads or have his own head chopped off. Not that much of a choice really… Jacob has had enough of cutting heads off, in fact, he feels his calling…

Summary

Rating

Ok

Too broad in its themes and with a considerably long running time, Stray Dogs strays too far.

What would you be doing now if you had to take up the same job that your grandfather – your father’s father had? I would be a faceless taxman, working in the civil service bureaucracy. For Jacob (Graham Butler) it is Executioner, like his father and his father before him. Taking the job was a choice… well it was in that it was to take up the sword and chop heads or have his own head chopped off. Not that much of a choice really…

Jacob has had enough of cutting heads off, in fact, he feels his calling might now be about as opposite as you can get – healer. He proposes this to Justice (Graeme McKnight), and after some arguing, it is agreed. Part of the reason this is allowed is that if the herdspeople are healthier, they will be calmer and cause fewer issues for the rich merchant class. He has already been healing Ana (Ruxandra Porojnicu) the wife of a high-ranking merchant and when Wilf (Coral Wylie) is bitten during a wolf attack, this allows the Executioner to move to heal the herdspeople. Jacob is on a path to redemption, moving from the bucket of blood to the bucket of water. There are suggestions that the actual healing might be done by his wife Hilde (Abbey Gillett). They have a loving, playful relationship and, at least initially, come across as together in all things, with Hilde perhaps having more drive than Jacob.

Stray Dogs‘ set is immediately striking. The design by Anna Lewis has two buckets hung from a metal frame – we soon find out one has blood, the other, water – and in front a sword. It suggests the scales of justice or even religious imagery with both the sword and the metal frame replicating a crucifix. We have no hint at a time or a place other than a feeling of the dark ages and two locations; town and outside the town. The set impresses further when it changes with the simple moving of wooden planks, the timber torn from the house replanted in the ground to become the forest.

Theo Chester’s script takes a broad brush to themes including socialism, redemption, capitalism, caste and class. A lot is put out there but very little is greatly explored. There is some minor focus on the haves and have-nots that starts to come through, but it remains fairly shallow. The language is reasonably modern, albeit with a quirk of emphasis on titles; Husband, Friend, Justice and so forth, and often drops pronouns leaving a strange staccato to many sentences which becomes distracting more than once.

Running at well over two hours, Stray Dogs feels like Slow Dogs. It takes a lot of time and a lot of exposition to move anything forward. Director Tommo Fowler seems fascinated by the two buckets, going back to them at every possible chance and repeated extended scenes with water for drinking or cleaning and blood grinding the gears down to a halt leaving the pace all over the place.

The dual performance by McKnight stands out, first the slowly dying Franz, Justice of the town and then in the second half as Pig, a wood dweller with his own agenda. The two are vastly different and I caught myself forgetting they were being played by the same actor. There are two memorable, graphically described torture scenes with superb writing and showcasing, causing the audience to flinch, I’m flinching slightly even thinking back on it now.

By the end, motivations are really murky, and relationships seem driven purely as plot contrivance. There is almost enough in the story to suggest why Jacob might leave the town to help Ana but the response by, and eventual repudiation from, Hilde just isn’t supported leaving the ending woefully out of place. These dogs have strayed too far.


Written by: Theo Chester
Directed by: Tommo Fowler
Design by: Anna Lewis

Stray Dogs plays at Theatre503 until 1 April. Further information and bookings can be found here.

About Dave B

Originally from Dublin but having moved around a lot, Dave moved to London, for a second time, in 2018. He works for a charity in the Health and Social Care sector. He has a particular interest in plays with an Irish or New Zealand theme/connection - one of these is easier to find in London than the other! Dave made his (somewhat unwilling) stage debut via audience participation on the day before Covid lockdowns began. He believes the two are unrelated but is keen to ensure no further audience participation... just to be on the safe side.