Reviews

Dead Dog in a Suitcase at The Bristol Old Vic review

Posted on: 2014-10-12

This incredible musical achievement is coupled with the fact that the actors themselves are an excessively talented bunch. I have never before been to a Kneehigh production, but this certainly will not be my last.

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Dead Dog in a Suitcase is being performed at The Bristol Old Vic from 8-25 October 2014. Kneehigh Theatre Company have created an anarchic, transgressive and gritty production which holds you in suspension and completely draws you in.

As soon as the figurative curtains raise, a scene of gloomy apprehension is laid bare – a lurching big-band opening number, a stray dog puppet and a sinister Punch and Judy show cackling away to stage left evoke a sort of ‘creepy carnival’ feel that foreshadows something unseemly. The creative dance montage at the beginning introduces the audience to a cast of colourful and complex characters, each one more troubling than the next.

The play revolves around ‘Mac’ Macheath, presented as the physical embodiment of anarchy and a character of grotesque moral substance. His outlaw existence of murder and underhand dealings lead him into hot water with the local law enforcement, Lockit, who is every bit as corrupt as Mac himself. The tale also casts a weary and narcissistic eye across the theme of love, detailing Mac’s distressing attitude to the women of the town he so hates. Building up in intensity and intrigue, the play crashes into a huge crescendo of hectic excitement and dramatic horror. I honestly cannot think of anyone this play would not appeal to, the audience was made up of all ages and yet everyone laughed and clapped and jumped at the same time.

This play has everything, and surprises lurk around every corner. There is an overwhelming modernity and relevance to the content, and yet it manages to hark back to classical music and scripting throughout. Subtle uses of verse when at crucial points, the sloping iambic pentameter of meaningful monologues and warped renditions of classical masterpieces all contribute to the overall poignancy of the play. The music itself is something I cannot hype enough. Charles Hazlewood, who has a compositional and musical repertoire of such immense brilliance I cannot possibly chose just one example, has created a salacious and current adaptation of the original Beggar’s Opera score. Hazlewood was concerned with the fact that the original opera had lost some of its bite over the 200 years since its inception, but was well aware of the spirit with which it was written. “If the Beggar’s Opera is to speak now with the same tangy urgency it had in 1728,” says Hazelwood, “then it needs music which does exactly what it did in [John Gay’s] original, i.e. to plunder the sounds of now, as well as the elegant trappings of then.” The new music is everything you expect and more, with all sorts of genres flying about including trip-hop, grime, power-rock and folk.

This incredible musical achievement is coupled with the fact that the actors themselves are an excessively talented bunch. I have never before been to a Kneehigh production, but this certainly will not be my last. Whilst onstage and giving a fabulous (if sometimes a tad ‘pantomime’) acting performance, each actor also contributed several instruments to the musical mix. This was calibrated in such a unique and stylised way that it was quite unlike anything I had ever seen before. I don’t know where Kneehigh found these people, but they truly are incredible.

Special mention to my personal favourite, Andrew Durand, who played Filch and a couple of assorted and bizarre characters throughout the play. He managed to portray an almost ‘comic relief’ character without extensive hamming up. All the actors were virtually perfect, really, and seemed so enthused and entrenched in their roles that for a few moments you could almost believe it was real.

Before attending, I wasn’t sure just how high to place my expectations, as the trailer certainly looked very good – but these things can be deceiving... But I came out of the Old Vic on Thursday night knowing I had witnessed something fantastic. The play is anarchic, depressing, liberating, hilarious, touching, scary, compelling and beautiful – and you simply MUST watch it.

 

5/5

Reviewed by Miri Teixeira for 365Bristol 

 

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