Stray

Reviewers discuss production values; I aspire to be the first to consider olfactory resonance.

This wonderful Australian play, Stray, is told from the point of view of Doberman, Tiga.  Tiga loves to snap at the wind, chase magpies, and salivate over imaginary tennis balls, but he is most easily distracted by the tang of rotting garbage, the pungency of slimy duck poo and seduction of a dead frog. Tiga’s view of the world is full of sights, sounds, smells and thoughts such as might preoccupy a dog. It is also an ode to Melbourne, its suburbs, climate, industry and landmarks. You see it, hear it and you taste it in Tiga’s poetic vocabulary and peculiar syntax. And, through Tiga’s description, you smell it. 

R Johns describes her play as a ‘eulogy to the innocent’. Tiga is a very good dog but the humans in the story - not so much. Some of the humans portrayed in Tiga’s story are cruel and exploitative. Poor Tiga just wants to love and serve and be a friend.

Jonty Hilton plays the physically exhausting and emotionally demanding role of Tiga. With seating “’n the round’, Hilton is exuberantly everywhere at once. He has clearly studied animals closely and been coached to appear dog-like dressed in the simplest of costumes (avec hidden kneepads). Hilton is agile and convincing. He principally expresses the range of Tiga’s emotions in the visage and body, augmented by the occasional howl or whine, and through idiosyncratic and charmingly whimsical speech. Tiga has doggie dreams (and nightmares), flashbacks to of his lost Mother, and narrates his journey and those humans he encounters with ingenuous perspicacity.

Another thirty or so characters are played by Inigo Wadsley and Jessica Muir. Wadsley ‘s range is diverse. He has many accents at his disposal and strong physicality.  Wadsley is especially good as Kelpie, Killer and Topsy the Cat. All the animal characters were well thought out and genuine without the distraction of annoying masks or make up. Considered direction by Poopy Lennon and Rhys Prestege of all acotrs is very much in sympathy.

Jessica Muir was all sunshine as ‘Squeaky’, charming as Miss Lentils and truly threatening as The Dogman. Muir does a good ‘bogun’.

Quick changes are the order of the day for Muir and Wadsley. Scene transitions are effected by the addition and removal of rostrum blocks and thoughtful lighting. The dog fight scene is especially effective under red. Location was also indicated with soundscapes evoking suburban back yards, busy streets and seedy commercial precincts. Through sound, lighting and text, the city of Melbourne becomes a character in its own right.

Stray is not a play for children. There is coarse language and mature themes. Whilst much of this may go over the heads of younger ones who would find the play enjoyable, they may also find it harrowing.  A mirror thrown up to show us the best and worst of humanity, Stray is sad, scary, albeit very funny. It is also over long. The play has historically been attractive for large groups to bring to the stage, but the second act began to feel somewhat protracted once a particular plot point was resolved. Some of the characters are fun (Alphonso’s partner, the butcher, Chicken-fed) but they do not advance the plot or ideas that have already been explored in the first act.

Stray has been a year in the making. It is evident that much passion and thought has gone into this production, only for a few performances squeezed into the week before Christmas. The business of the season is a shame for such a wonderful show.

Stray is, above all, a quest to find love and acceptance in a cruel world. Near the end, Tiga asks ‘Are humans like dogs?’ Perhaps. Stray shows us the good and the bad of both species, but one has the sense that the dogs are a nicer lot. All you need to know is that Tiga is a very good boy.

Anne Blythe-Cooper

Photographer: Toby Rudov