Review: FIFTEEN DOGS at CAA Theatre

Pet owners are the same - you talk to your pets and you wish they could answer you in return. Does Buddy know he's a very good boy? Could Queenie just tell you what she wants instead of endlessly meowing at the bathroom door? Wouldn't it be great if they could just think and communicate like we do? Canadian author André Alexis dove into this concept in their Giller Prize winning novel Fifteen Dogs where the Olympian gods Hermes and Apollo set about a wager - if animals were granted human intelligence would at least one of them die happy or would they all live their lives in misery? A rowdy troupe of 15 dogs at a veterinary clinic were chosen to be the subjects of this bet and so the tale begins.

Fifteen Dogs was adapted for the stage and directed by Marie Farsi. It originally premiered at Crow's Theatre in 2023 before making its current off-Mirvish debut at the CAA Theatre. In approaching the stage adaptation, Farsi discovered that the narrative was delivered in a fashion akin to epic poems like Homer's The Odyssey, quite befitting the two scheming Olympians as the puppet masters of this story.  

The cast of six include Dan Chameroy, Laura Condlln, Stephen Jackman-Torkoff, Tom Rooney, Tyrone Savage, and Mirabella Sundar Singh who all take on multiple roles - canine, human and Olympian - in order to bring this chaotic story to life. Much like the results of quarreling gods, chaos is a quite appropriate term to describe this performance, particularly within the first act of the play. It is quite chaotic with the actors playing numerous roles that I found myself getting confused as to which dog is which and I dropped the ball a few times when it came to following the plot.

That is not to say that this performance isn't enjoyable - there are plenty of laugh out loud moments to be had. Of course it's hard not to laugh at people barking like dogs, sniffing behinds, scrounging for food, and pawing at their human masters - the dedication to embracing their inner pup is what sells this. Hats off to Rooney for his portrayal of Majnoun, an integral black poodle often referred to as Lord Jim or just Jim. As his human intelligence grows, so does his kinship with his beloved human Nira, played by Condlln. Their bond is exquisitely touching. Also, Jackman-Torkoff quite literally dazzled as Zeus and lit up the stage with gold and sass when he appeared to lay down the law between his meddling sons.

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