Dogs Barking"All four actors give superior performances."LA Weekly "Director Meindl helms with confidence and courage, wringing every bit of ruthlessly unpleasant truth from the tale of two lovers who break up and battle like the barking dogs of the title."Daily Variety The definition of "in-yer-face-theatre" (of which Dog's Barking is a part) is "something blatantly aggressive or provocative, impossible to ignore or avoid." I have always been drawn to this type of theatre (partly because I was living in London in the early 90's when this movement had its beginnings) but also because it doesn't allow an audience to sit back and contemplate what they are witnessing onstage in a detached manner. It instead forces people to examine their feelings and extreme states of being that we normally avoid in life. Consequently, theatre becomes experiential, not theoretical. As we rehearsed this play, I often thought of current global events and questioned the timing of doing this piece. I then realized that this play examines the extremities of the human condition on a personal level that - to me - is being reflected globally at a collective level. We are seeing how people will go to whatever lengths to defend their position or claim what is theirs or demand that others capitulate to their views. The best theatre is in some way always a reflection of what is currently 'in-yer-face' in real life. Whether that means in your own personal life or that which you read about in the newspaper or see on tv. Or as Laurence Olivier once said, "theatre is a place that can show us how to comprehend cruelty, teaching the human heart the knowledge of itself." Director Anthony Meindl January 19, 2003 back to Theatre History > |
