Theatre 2023: Fifteen Dogs @ Crow's Theatre

On stage at Crow’s Theatre, the play Fifteen Dogs is based a novel by Canadian author André Alexis, which my husband Rich and I both read and enjoyed a few years back. The premise revolves around a wager between the Greek Gods Apollo and Hermes as to whether animals would be unhappy if they were given human intelligence.  Passing a veterinary clinic where 15 dogs were being kept, the Gods decided to pick these animals as the test subjects to settle their bet.  Apollo wagered that burdened with human qualities, all the dogs would die unhappy.  Hermes bet that at least one of the 15 dogs would benefit from the additional awareness and would feel happiness at the point of death.

Imbued with human consciousness and intelligence, the dogs quickly figured out how to unlock the doors of their cages. Twelve of the dogs fled their captivity while three decided to remain and were unfortunately put down once the escape was discovered.  The rest of the book follows the twelve dogs for the durations of their lives as they grappled with their unnatural new traits and skills, occasionally with further intervention from the two Gods, as well as from their peeved father Zeus, King of the Greek Gods.

Of different breeds, temperaments, sizes and ages, the dogs reacted differently to the new thoughts and feelings that befell them. Atticus, a grey Neapolitan Mastiff abhorred the changes and was determined to suppress them and only display “normal and natural” canine traits.  As one of the largest and most powerful dogs in the group, he assumed the role of leader and demanded that all who wanted to remain in his pack would follow suit in acting like “real” dogs. Joining him were Rosie, a female German Shepherd, Frick and Frack, two Labrador Retrievers, Benjy, a cunning self-serving Beagle and a few others.

Any dog who did not readily obey Atticus or fit into his plans would be killed by his gang.  While they were successful in eliminating several dogs including the Great Dane Bella and little Teacup Poodle Athena, two dogs managed to survive.  Of all the dogs, the mutt named Prince embraced his new powers of thought the most.  He became a poet, speaking in flowery, abstract terms that drove Atticus to distraction.  But before he could be killed, Prince was given a warning by Hermes and escaped into exile. The large black Poodle Majnoun was a threat to Atticus’ leadership status and therefore was attacked en masse by the group.  He was left for dead but managed to survive when he was rescued by Nira and Miguel, two humans who adopted him.  Much of the book follows the exploits of Majnoun (renamed Jim by his new owners) and Prince.

André Alexis set this fable in Toronto, his hometown, focusing on High Park where the dogs made their new home after their escape, and the Beach where Prince spent much of his time after his exile.  The printed version of the novel even contains maps of these two areas.  On Bloor Street, Bella was hit by a car after being tricked into racing across it by Frick and Frack.  Alexis also name-checks many other well-known streets including Kingston Road, Glen Stewart Park, Trinity-Bellwoods, Parkdale, and even St. Clair and Avenue Road which is close to where we live!  These specific Toronto-based settings made this fantasy a bit more grounded as we could imagine all the places where these dogs roamed.

While reading this book, I was reminded of the classic novel Lord of the Flies where an isolated group of boys struggled for dominance, formed cliques and empowered by groupthink, lost their sense of morality and performed unspeakable acts as a collective that might never have occurred if each acted individually.  I found it interesting that in Lord of the Flies, the boys turned into “depraved animals” while in Fifteen Dogs, the innocent, inherently loyal creatures turned into “depraved humanoids”. 

Given its subject matter, Fifteen Dogs is not an easy novel to perform in live theatre, but Crow’s Theatre is known for its creative staging and Marie Farsi who adapted and directed this play did a fantastic job. The Guloien Theatre, Crow’s main stage, can be configured in all sorts of arrangements.  This time, the audience sat in “the round” with 5 rows of tiered stadium seating surrounding the “stage”.  Six stellar actors each played the roles of multiple dogs, as well as the Greek Gods, humans who interacted with the dogs, and narrators who would convey the parts of the book that involved lyrical exposition.

We wondered with some trepidation about whether we would see actors prance around in “full-body dog suits” like the creepy movie version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats.  Wisely, for this production the costumes were much more subtle, merely hinting at the breed by the colour of clothing and the occasional scarf or hat.  The wrinkly ridges of skin on the Mastiff, Atticus, were represented by layers of grey scarf wrapped around the neck of the actor portraying him.  Rosie, the German shepherd had a piece of sleek fur draped over her shoulder. The tall slender actor playing Majnoun was dressed all in black, while the loopy, free-spirited poet Prince had wild, curly hair and was dressed in dark brown tones, with a fur-lined vest and boa-like scarf.  The sly Beagle Benjy had on a beige-toned checkered jacket and fedora hat, resulting in a look that channeled Nicely-Nicely Johnson from the musical Guys and Dolls.

While the clothing helped, the essence of each dog was conveyed more by the sounds, body movements and facial expressions produced by the actors’ performances.  In a stroke of stage-craft genius, fifteen plastic models were used to visually represent each of the dogs in the story.  They were first brought out in a tray during the scene in the veterinary clinic and then moved to one of the rocks on stage.  Being able to see the breed of each dog really helped to augment the performances of the actors.  Then one by one as the dogs died, their corresponding figure was carried off stage as the circumstances of their death was explained.  It felt like we were watching Agatha Christie’s classic mystery Ten Little Indians (aka And Then There Were None).

This was a terrific and creative interpretation of a difficult novel to adapt into a play.  We thoroughly enjoyed watching Fifteen Dogs at Crow’s Theatre.