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1999 Wisconsin State Festival Winner
Trapped in a police training facility,
Fang, Ralph, Rover, and Rex search for meaning—or just a way out. The
characters are dogs - played by actors. The story unfolds as we
discover the quiet group dynamics of a bunch of very jaundiced, somewhat
depressed dogs, beginning to wonder what their purpose is in life.
Rex is a new arrival in the facility - a domestic street dog - with very
alien idea's to the more militarized thinking of the pack. His arrival
brings out the long simmering and unacknowledged tensions in the kennel.
The warring concepts of Pacifism versus Patriotism are played out - but
on a 'dog' level. The piece has been performed in South Africa, both by
adults, and by school children - in a variety of different theatrical
stagings.
Another layer is added, by having the dogs regard humans as 'Gods' and
themselves as 'people'. Thus 'white' Gods, 'black' Gods, and the police
of the title – the 'Blue' Gods. |
