Review: DOG/ACTOR Threedumb Theatre at Etcetera Theatre 2 – 5 August 2022 & on tour
‘… brings the presence of the three horrible creatures into full living colour with brilliant economy and great skill’ ★★★ 1/2
Stephen Smith is touring his one man show of two Steven Berkoff pieces, Dog and Actor. Both feature long wordless passages of extremely effective physical acting, mime techniques brought to the service of acute characterisation and the peopling of a completely bare stage, and they are a joy to watch.
Both playlets also feature Berkoff’s slightly rambling story-telling: in the first case exploring the adventures of a skin-head and his dog in the East End, in the second showing an actor making a profound horlicks of relationships and trying to get work. Any work. And then his mum falls ill. As is the case with most Berkoff characters, they are both profoundly unsympathetic human beings. The dog too is a complete nightmare, and Stephen Smith brings the presence of the three horrible creatures into full living colour with brilliant economy and great skill.
The reason to watch the show is the physical work, and that is reason enough. Watching him set up a percussion backing to his actor’s progress through London, on a complicated effects board, was also fun.
DOG/ACTOR at Etcetera Theatre 2 – 5 August 2022 7.30 /Camden Fringe
Box Office https://camden.ssboxoffice.com/events/dog-actor/
UK Tour schedule:
CAMBRIDGE: Corpus Playroom - Thurs 7th July - Sat 9th July, 7:45pm.
CAMDEN: Etcetera Theatre - Tues 2nd August - Sat 6th Aug, 7:30pm.
EDINBURGH: Greenside Infirmary St - Mon 15th August - Sat 20th Aug, 9:00pm.
Presented by Threedumb Theatre / Stephen Smith
Reviewed by Chris Lilly
Chris Lilly read Drama at Hull University in the 70s, stage-managed a bit, spent 8 years as a community arts worker in Tower Hamlets, did the occasional tech job, then taught in East London and participated in shedloads of community theatre. Since retiring from teaching, he has acquired an MA in 'Theatre' from the University of Surrey and indulged a passion for live performance anywhere in London courtesy of his Freedom Pass.
