Dogs Barking

Love, revenge, violence and an awful lot of alcohol: all the ingredients necessary for an exhilarating drama. Written by Richard Zajdlic, creator of the BBC series This Life, Dogs Barking has all the pace and intensity of a thriller, seasoned with everyday tribulations and personalities its audience can relate to.

Neil is the ex whose broken heart now burns for revenge. Alex is trying to move on, but is locked in battle with her former lover over their shared lease. Meanwhile she is struggling to sustain a fragile new relationship which her sister, Vicky seemingly wants to destroy. As these three torment and trick each other in covetous pursuit of retribution, they weave around themselves a web of deception impossible to untangle. By restricting all of the action to the singular space of the front room of an apartment, Director Michael Moxam elevates and makes tangible the sense of entrapment. The locks to the flat have been changed, and the single set of keys is begrudgingly passed around, paralleling the characters’ designs to control one another.

This play is most enthralling in its more aggressive moments, and the scenes of both verbal and physical violence are utterly gripping. But conversely, during the scenes which consist mainly of prosaic conversation and petty feuding, the minutes start to drag a little and the characters loose their ability to captivate. With too much time spent waiting for the next sensational eruption, one can’t help but feel that for 80 minutes of barking, there’s not enough bite.