Dream of the Dog by Craig Higginson is billed as 'a richly textured and complex story of South Africa's emerging democracy, and its continued negotiation with its past in order to find a workable identity for its future'. That does the play a disservice really, making it sound like a slice of worthy but probably defiantly unentertaining liberal soul-searching.
Actually, it is a gripping 75 minutes of intimate theatre, in the none-more-intimate surrounds of Trafalgar Studios, a venue so cosy that when I was last there one of the actors trod on my foot during a particularly crucial moment.
Janet Suzman plays an elderly woman living with her unpleasant but senile husband in the South African bush. The farm has been sold and she is preparing for a move to Durban to be by the sea. On the eve of the move she is visited by the mysterious 'Look Smart', her former garden-boy who has come good and has returned on a mission to dig up the past and reveal a terrible crime.
Dream of the Dog is a brilliantly acted piece with Ariyon Bakare (who was clearly wasted in his previous credits in Family Affairs and Doctors) as Look Smart matching Suzman all the way. It's exactly the right length for the subject matter and whilst it does indeed have something to say about South African society and history, it's a good, solid drama in its own right.
The other production at Trafalgar Studios - Holding the Man - is also worth a look, although this true story of a gay relationship in 70s/80s Australia does suffer a little from a jarring if understandable shift in tone from a comic first half to a tragic second act.
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