*Winner of the 1989/90 Tonight/AA Life Vita Award for Comedy in Theatre*
Pick of the Fringe Award, Grahamstown Arts Festival. South Africa.
First Place 1999 Wisconsin State AACTFest. USA.
An award-winning South African theatre play, written at the height of Apartheid.
The play takes place in a police dog training facility. The characters themselves are dogs - played by actors padding around on all fours. The story unfolds as we discover the group dynamics of a bunch of very jaundiced, somewhat depressed dogs, beginning to wonder what their purpose is in life. The simmering discontent of the dogs existence is brought to a head with the arrival of Rex, a domestic civilian dog with radically different ideas.
A dog's Godot begins to play out in the kennel...
Genre: DRAMA / GeneralStaged Professional Productions
Staged at Windybrow Theatre, Johannesburg, South Africa 1990
Staged at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, South Africa.1991
Staged at the State Theatre, in Pretoria, South Africa. 1991
Staged by the First Banana Theatre Company, Wisconsin, USA 1998.
Staged by the Village Playhouse of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, USA 1999.
Staged by the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Theatre, Wisconsin, USA Feb 2008
Staged reading by the Living Theatre, New York, USA May 2008
Staged by Brown Trinity Repertory Theatre, Brown University, USA 2009.
-DOGS OF THE BLUE GODS-
LIGHTS UP
.We see the three dogs lying on top of each other. They are Fang, Ralph, and Rover. They each snore at different pitches. They are played by actors with no masks or 'doglike' additions. They just are actors, on all fours, naturally, as we'll see.
After a minute of this we hear:
FX COCK CROWING-
which wakes Fang, who extricates himself from the pile of sleepers. The actor playing the character (like all the others) moves about on all fours, quite naturally. He pads off to one side and - as the audience realize he is a dog - he glares upwards as the FX repeats-
FX COCK CROWING-
FANG. (shouts) HEY SHUT UP! SHUT UP!
(He glares a moment longer, then turns and pads back to the group. He pauses and stretches. Ralph lifts his head up and yawns, then speaks.)
RALPH. You're up early-
FANG. I'm always up early, can’t sleep Ralph, no matter what I do, just can't sleep-
RALPH. You been thinking too much-
FANG. Yeah? - And maybe you got flea's-
RALPH. Okay, be like that then-
FANG. Agh- I'm- oh I dunno..
RALPH. You haven't woken up yet an you're already depressed- Don't be so indulgent.
FANG. (yawning) Ah you know what I mean-
RALPH. Yeah yeah, just keep it down - Rover's still sleeping, an you know what he's like-
FANG. His head's in the clouds - you should put him straight-
(They each pad casually over to opposite ends of the stage and cock their legs as they speak-)
| Language | Status |
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Dutch
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Already translated.
Translated by Marlies Perman
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French
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Already translated.
Translated by Jérôme Paillette
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Author review: The translator Jerome Paillette was swift and courteous, and it was a pleasure letting him apply his translation skills. I would recommend him, unreservedly. |
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Italian
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Already translated.
Translated by Silvia Niro
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Portuguese
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Translation in progress.
Translated by Maria Fátima Aguiar Gomes
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Spanish
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Already translated.
Translated by Amparo Don
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