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- Contents Category: Theatre
- Custom Article Title: The Boy Who Talked to Dogs
- Review Article: Yes
- Article Title: The Boy Who Talked to Dogs
- Article Subtitle: An adaptation of Martin McKenna’s memoir
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There is, somewhat surprisingly, a German connection in the otherwise resoundingly Irish The Boy Who Talked to Dogs, the State Theatre Company of South Australia and Slingsby Theatre Company co-production based on Martin McKenna’s memoir about his hardscrabble childhood in 1970s Garryowen. In both the book and the play, adapted by Irish playwright Amy Conroy, we encounter Martin (Bryan Burroughs) as a deeply troubled youth – the ‘smallest, weakest, and scaredest’ of a set of triplets – growing up with German emigrant parents.
- Production Company: Adelaide Festival
While Martin’s mother’s inimitable black forest cake provides solace, his father’s alcohol-fuelled rages, as well as the humiliation of school teachers, drive him to misbehaviour (today he would likely be diagnosed with ADHD and other learning difficulties, not to mention trauma). At the age of thirteen, he runs away from home. Adopting or adopted by – the play questions which is the case – a pack of six stray dogs, Martin finally finds himself at some kind of peace. ‘Why are you the only ones who understand me?’ he asks of the motley mutts, enchantingly brought to life by assistant director Clara Solly-Slade’s shadow puppets and lighting designer Chris Petridis’ animated silhouettes.
As with A German Life, The Boy Who Talked to Dogs is anchored by a formidable performance, in this case that of Irish actor Burroughs as Martin. Lean, bald, and perpetually smeared with sweat and ‘coal dust’, Burroughs’s vivid, intensely physical performance makes the space – a cavernous hall with cabaret-style seating and fringed with red drapes – seem much smaller than it is. He is matched for rambunctiousness by musicians Quincy Grant, Victoria Falconer, and Emma Luker, who form a sort of Irish folk band and interpose themselves both musically and dialogically in Martin’s first-person narration (the meta-theatrical banter between Burroughs and Falconer is, unfortunately, rather awkward). Director Andy Packer and set designer Wendy Todd make good use of the full depth and breadth of the space, dividing the winningly loose action between a circular platform in the centre of the hall and four diorama-like sets in its corners, which open out from large wooden cabinets.
It is all raggedy rather than slick, but I think that’s half the point: that from hardship and dysfunction can emerge connection and, perhaps, a kind of healing. Even the children present on opening night knew that, whatever else they may have been saying, Martin’s dogs – or should that be the dogs’ Martin? – were telling us this much.
The Boy Who Talked to Dogs continues at the Thomas Edmonds Opera Studio, Adelaide Showground, until 14 March 2021. Performance attended: February 25.
This project is supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.