by CLANCY

I don’t know why they call them the Dog Days.

My fur is falling out in clumps and I’m so itchy I’d like to roll on a bed of nails. My name is Clancy, and since Amy’s busy with that baby (What else is new? Have I been fed today? I have not.), I’ll be your theatre critic this week.

Poised as we are on the brink of a new theatre season, I thought these misnamed days would be a good time to look back on 2002–03. Soon, Amy and her cohorts will be giving out those Mochas, or whatever they call them, to their favourite English shows of the past season. So the following are my thoughts on that, not that anyone listens to a dog.

If I may be permitted to revisit an old pet peeve, there is far too little canine representation on our stages. This is a city full of talented dog actors who never get more than walk-ons and have to pay the bills by doing Alpo commercials.

All right, so what happened in 2002–03?

The year that was

Centaur did the Vinci play. Nice set, crazy text, no dogs at all. They followed that with Michel Tremblay’s Impromptu of Outremont, which we liked more than some, but didn’t really buy the lead actress as an opera singer. Their Strawberries in January was a tasty treat and Copenhagen was a hard slog (some of us may have dozed off in the middle) but not without intellectual rewards.

The Saidye gave us a really marvellous Glass Menagerie (including dainty poodle and whippet figurines). We particularly enjoyed Rosemary Dunsmore as that bitch, Amanda. As we’re not big fans of rodent-based theatre, we gave their Mousetrap a miss. A new addition to the family caused us to regretfully miss Shylock, but we heard it was a tour-de-force by Gareth Armstrong. We were back in the game for Visiting Mr. Green, which we found to be well acted, but again, sadly lacking in pooch presence. If any character ever needed canine companionship, it was the old duffer in that play.

Gravy Bath teamed up with the Saidye to create the Saidye ‘B’ Off-Centre, and produced a new Anthony Kokx play, Ugly, to critical acclaim.

Black Theatre and Job

Another of our favourites was a Black Theatre Workshop production, A Common Man’s Guide to Loving Dogs, er… I mean Women. It was well acted and directed and I personally could really relate because I am a guy and I am black.

Those two “Job” guys were back, reprising part one of their opus at the Wildside Festival and premiering part two at the Fringe. We envy them their way with words and water bottles. Also at the Wildside, we really liked a thing called Hatched, about a half-woman, half-bird vaudeville performer, presented by a company called SaBooge.

That animal-lover Nicola Gunn came back to the Fringe, following up the award-winning Elephant Club with Tyrannous Rex, which is not about a dinosaur but does feature a black panther. We think she’s great.

I could go on and on, but I need to go hang around the front door now and hope that someone thinks to take me for a pee. See you at the more open-minded venues next season. Love, Clancy.

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