HOME’s impressive schedule of touring productions continues with Dead Dog In A Suitcase (and other love songs), a twisted morality tale full of the kind of weirdness that Cornish production company Kneehigh specialise in. A reworking of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, the play has earned rave reviews in the national press and has been described as a ‘fabulous piece of entertainment’ by the British Theatre Guide. Music director Charles Hazelwood pinpoints the problem with producing a version of the 1728 opera, as the songs lose the urgency and bite they once had, so he aims to ‘give them back their bite’ with a modern overhaul and bastardisation. Taking aim at corporate greed and the end of civilisation as we know it, writer Carl Grose says that this combines to create a portrait of a world hanging by a thread – with the result intended to be shocking, hilarious, heartfelt and absurd. A dead dog that should hopefully still give enough bite to highlight the essential injustices in the world the original was noted for.
Fri 11 – Sat 26 Sep, HOME, 2 Tony Wilson Place, M15 4FN, Tel: 0161 200 1500, 7.30pm (plus Wed 2.30pm matinees), £15 – £29.50 (preview £10), homemcr.org
- Words:
- Joe Daly
- Published on:
- Tue 22 Sep 2015
