Review by Penny
⭐
As Sarita starts a new chapter on her own, an unexpected four-legged house guest turns her life around in ways she was not hoping for, but perhaps she needed.
The concept of Dog Mum is lovely and possibly something worth exploring through theatre. Unfortunately, the execution of these ideas is incredibly poor on all fronts, adding nothing to the blurb of the show itself.
Aside from a few fun inclusions of behaviour that will be familiar to any dog owner, the writing is stilted and juvenile, with a confusing yet no-stakes plot and zero subtlety in its comedy and attempt at threading metaphor through the play, as well as being structurally all over the place as it attempts to tackle a huge number of deep and complex issues with very little substance. However, it is difficult to see the level of potential in this writing when direction is seemingly non-existent and performances range from uncomfortably basic to painfully lacklustre.
This being said, Joanna Holden does her best with the material as interfering neighbour Nell and gives us a glimpse of at least one 3-dimensional character in her charmingly annoying portrayal. Tom Barnes also provides the few genuine moments of comedy in some of his delivery as dog Ruben. The challenge with all the dog portrayals in this play is that they waver between a more human interpretation and fully embodying the animals, which ultimately ends up looking like an awkward game of pretend rather than a considered performance choice with any notable impact.
The technical elements of the production are equally lacking in quality. Other than some nice changes to Foster’s appearance once she gains a home, dog costuming does not feel especially thought-through. The sound and lighting design are entirely uninteresting, and use of projections onto a wall already painted as the outside of a building in order to show setting changes is abysmal, not least a hammy shift from black-and-white to colour at one point.
Disappointingly, trying to cover so many bases and failing at every hurdle, this production might be attempting to bite off more of the slipper than it can chew!