Studio Theatre’s Dog Tale Shows Shakespeare’s Human Side
William Shakespeare used dogs as a metaphor over 200 hundred times in his plays – but there is only one role for an actual dog. It’s Crab, which makes a brief appearance in The Two Gentlemen of Verona and is described by his clownish owner Launce as “the sourest-natured dog that lives.”
So it was up to Canadian author Leon Rooke to right an egregious wrong in his funny 1983 book Shakespeare’s Dog. Apparently Hooker, the Bard’s trusty furry companion, was snuffing at his heels right from the beginning, sharing a time of intense learning for the budding playwright. Despite what you may have heard about the many pretenders who supposedly penned Shakespeare’s master works, it turns out that the real muse was a four-legged pooch.
The book, which won The Governor General’s Award for Fiction, was transferred to the stage by playwright Rick Chafe in 2008. The work is the current production from the U of A’s Studio Theatre at the Timms Centre for the Arts through Feb. 15.
We first meet Will (Kael Wynn) as the husband of the formidable Anne Hathaway (Beverley Rockwell), who demands, “You get down here and change a diaper!”
She wants her husband to stay right around home. He’s a lively fellow, dashing about, verging on ADD and talking non-stop about his new career as an actor.
A local entrepreneur needs a play because the greatest actor of his time, Sir Richard Burbage (Caitlin Kelly), is coming to town – in disguise because he is evading the law. Will scribbles a few lines down, and although he’s not much of an actor, he’s a pretty good writer. His nascent play is an early take on Hamlet but Sir Richard can’t understand all those sword fights and just who is poisoning whom. So Will decides to write a romance instead, and using an early argument he had with his wife, who was standing on the balcony, they improvise the greatest love scene of them all. Sir Richard is entranced.
Hooker is played by Braden Butler, and the hound has his own problems. A formidable game warden is going all Javert over him for poaching a local deer. His punishment is to have the pads cut off his paws and if he doesn’t turn himself in, all the other where to buy finasteride in australia dogs for 10 miles around will be crucified and his master punished as well. His plight is paralleled with the village’s treatment of a local witch and the casual brutality of the time. Through the help (and sometimes hindrance) of a pack of mangy street dogs, he is spared the torture, which leaves him as our genial chronicler of all things Bardic. Since Hooker seems considerably more perceptive with a more intimate and astute view of the times than most of the two-legged locals, he is worth listening to.
What we witness might be called the greening of the world’s great playwright. Will starts off as a half-formed romantic and callow fellow who believes he should write about the “chain of being,” and the power structure of the time, but his experiences set him on a whole new course. Sir Richard tells him, “Stop listening to what people say and listen to what they mean – and look around the world until you see yourself.”
Hooker’s relationship with his master is more complicated. The dog observes, “What is needed is a firm paw for the lad.” He suggests that what the writer must do is find the “soul” that connects us all. That may be a large concept for your average canine, but writers Chafe and Rooke have turned the mutt into a metaphor for enlightenment. Hooker has become a “philosopher dog.”
Much of the humour is generated by our familiarity with the Shakespeare canon. The recognition of the many quotes sprinkled throughout spark an immediate reaction. Buffs will recognize the (sometimes mangled) lines from familiar plays.
Butler makes Hooker a canine to be reckoned with. Director Ann Hodges pulls mature performances from her young company. And with the help of vocal coach Doug Mertz, you believe that pseudo-Elizabethan was invented for a dog to speak.
The humans are impressive as well. Rockwell gives Hathaway an earthy twist – she’s described as a “mattress thumper.” Kelly gives Sir Richard gravity and pomposity at the same time. Wynn’s neophyte bard is a very likable fellow, and is excellent in taking us through a special time in a unique life.
Shakespeare’s Dog could have slipped into a much-too-cute experiment – but it doesn’t. It is a genuine theatrical experience, boisterous and entertaining.
Photos by Ed Ellis
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