Review: DOG ENDS, Tabard Theatre

Last seen in 1984 as BBC's Play for Today, Dog Ends establishes a scenario familiar to many: George is growing weary of looking after his frail elderly father and his beloved dog. Set in an ordinary home, the play looks at a social impact of an ageing population and the possible solutions that may be attempted to alleviate this pressure on the NHS and society.

Playwright Richard Harris currently has his well-known play Stepping Out showing at the Vaudeville Theatre, but this is a very different, pared-down show. Written as a black comedy, the play sets out a world where euthanasia is becoming both legal and increasingly common. Humans are being selectively 'culled' when they outlive their usefulness. George enlists the services of a recommended vet to put down his father's aged dog, but after a series of misunderstandings, the vet also ends the life of George's father.

The play examines an ordinary family, trying to do their best by an elderly relative. The theme seems to be duty rather than love. Grandad is addressed like a child even before he starts to deteriorate and the family frequently loses patience with him. His loss would be more affecting if there were moments of more tender care from the family, but everyone treats him more as an inconvenience. It is left up to the audience to feel sympathy; Adam King's lighting works well here as Grandad is poignantly highlighted in the darkness between scenes.

Nick Wilton plays George and is the most natural performer in the show. He is totally convincing as the dutiful son, who is utterly conflicted by his very human feelings of frustration towards his father and frequently wishes he was dead. The conversation between him and neighbour Henry, who has just lost his own father, is honest and completely recognisable to anyone who has been a carer. Wilton is excellent in both the quieter moments and the farce.

Anita Graham's Beatrice is the main source of comedy. She has good timing and some of the best lines in the show. Bombastic son Julian is played by Alex Mann. He and his new wife Danielle, played by Charlotte Peak, are both funny and totally unbearable. They are selfish and social-media obsessed Millennials, who have no interest in either Grandad or helping to alleviate any pressure on Julian's parents. Both characters are fairly one-dimensional, but the actors work with what they are given.

The play is often very funny and frequently so dark that it is totally black. In the second act the action veers towards farce, but there is still an underlying bleakness. Due to strikes, there is no room for Grandad in the morgue, so he is first carried upstairs, with Beatrice complaining about him knocking her new Homebase wallpaper. Later, he is put in Henry's freezer, on setting six, as Danielle has checked that human flesh is closest to pork.

The main failing of the show is that it is too long, especially the first act. The establishment of the family situation is very drawn out and could be cut significantly. The farce of the second act also erases any emotion about the demise of Grandad; it feels a little like two different plays rather than the continuation of the same story.

Michael Leopold's design is deliberately neutral and unremarkable. The family's sitting room could belong to anyone and be anywhere, which works very well in reminding the audience of the everyday situation that the family starts off in.

After temporarily closing following a change in management, this play marks the reopening of Chiswick's Tabard Theatre. It's a good, solid start to a great little theatre space.

Dog Ends is at Tabard Theatre until 15 April

Photo Credit: Alistair Hilton

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