BARK! The Musical… How The Little Dog Found His Voice – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – C – Chambers Street

BARK! The Musical… How The Little Dog Found His Voice at C – Chambers Street until 27 August 2018 (not 13).

Star rating: three stars ★★★✩✩

Where to begin? This was a truly unique theatrical experience, as for this one-off performance members of the audience were encouraged to bring along their own “Little Dog” with the reward of treats provided by one of the sponsors, The Liverpool Barkery. The audience for the performance had at least six canines – with hilarious consequences!

In many ways, this could be seen as low-rent response to Cats, as six performers emulate dogs of differing breeds and characters meeting in the dog park. Francesca Goodridge has kept her tongue firmly in her cheek as she directs this cast of three men and three women in a madcap hour and a quarter of songs exploring the dogs’ relationships with their owners and each other.

Boo (Jalisa Andrews) is bouncy and very friendly, making the newcomer Rocks (Dale Adams) feel welcome. There’s something unnerving when humans, even if they are pretending to be dogs, sniff each other’s nether regions though! Along the way, we meet the glamourous Afghan Hound (Emily Chesterton), the rather butch/camp ‘mutt’ (Andrew Doyle), Laura Hyde portraying a Jewish doggie and, finally, the chocolate lab is played by Brian James Leys.

The nature of the show and its marketing means that there are a large number of children in the audience. It is fair to recognise that there was a bit of awkwardness about ‘The Stud’ of the Lab who’s in love with Lassie on the television, before going to the vet to ‘lose his balls’; the bewilderment of the Chihuahuathat stripped back to gold lamé hot pants and further to a sparkling jockstrap… Oh, and the [spoiler alert] death of the chocolate lab clearly upset a little girl close to the stage. Perhaps a more children-friendly approach would be advisable.

In one scene, the hounds on stage gleefully send bubbles floating through the air – this was clearly the highlight for the doggies in the audience who barked and howled their delight. Truly hilarious.

There are some good voices here and occasional moments where the ensemble vocal blend is very pleasing indeed – the ‘Allelujah’ sequence is very good. There is a lack of a focus of some sort for the performers other than the sniffing – whether that be the group’s reaction to a squeaky toy or passing sirens, there is scope to develop some kind of naturally identifiably ‘doggy’ response. Perhaps they should take the cue from the dogs in the audience who were going wild for the bubbles?

A bit more work on movement, focus and some judicial editing could create a more enjoyable piece all round, especially if it plays to the audience at the sides a little more as it is a thrust stage set-up.

Fiona Orr