If every dog has its day, this is Ubom!’s. And if anyone has been blind to the dogshow of South African politics for the last 50 years, or turned a blind eye to dog-eat-dog nature of it all, then Ubom! has just the right guide-dogs to lead you through a brief history lesson.
If every dog has its day, this is Ubom!’s. And if anyone has been blind to the dogshow of South African politics for the last 50 years, or turned a blind eye to dog-eat-dog nature of it all, then Ubom! has just the right guide-dogs to lead you through a brief history lesson.
The Dogs Must Be Crazy is a political satire reminiscent of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, but with a few significant changes: switch all the farmyard creatures to dogs, and shift the political landscape from Cold War Russia to South Africa.
The Dogs Must Be Crazy uses allegory to tell a story of transformation, from the reign of the National Party to the current day – and all the hope, heartbreak and scandal in between. The show was originally conceived in 1991 by Mike van Graan, who was looking for an inventive way of staging protest theatre. It has been completely re-devised for this staging; after all, we have come a long way since 1991.
The socio-political references are current, astute and hilarious. As director Rob Murray says, “The government is one of the greatest tragicomic scriptwriters!” In preparation for the show, the cast spent time working with dogs at the local SPCA, and the character research definitely paid off.
The show opens with a pack of dogs scrounging in bins for bones, scrapping with each other, scratching, sniffing behinds and doing typically doggy things. It’s so convincing you can almost smell them. These ain’t nothin’ but hound dogs.
Until, that is, the dogs begin taking on subtle human characteristics – just enough to suggest that there is much more going on here than a junkyard dogfight. A snooty pooch hangs a sign outside her fence: “Pedigrees only. Geen brakke.” Ahhh: instant realisation of where we begin in this country’s history.
And the incisive metaphors just keep coming, depicting every hilarity and hypocrisy of South African politics.
Unfortunately, the sound was terrible. Some technical issue caused the sound to constantly switch from left to right speakers, and crackle distractingly. It was a pity, especially since the soundtrack is superb.
The Dogs Must Be Crazy may be a production of few words, but the song parodies are nothing short of genius. The cast rendition of “Like a Dog” (taken from the hit Lonely Island single “Like a Boss”) hits home and funny bones alike. The alpha male raps about the extent of his power and all the absurd ways he uses it to his advantage.
Afterwards, when his showerhead hardhat takes a tumble, a rogue dog lifts his leg and empties his bladder on it. Zapiro, anyone? Then the alpha dog and his cohorts attempt to trap and smother the rogue pup, using the South African flag… Zapiro, anyone?
The songs are so brilliant, in fact, that you may well draw the conclusion that these dogs’ bark is worse than their bite – until the scene depicting xenophobic violence. The violence in this scene is terrifying in the most fundamental sense. It doesn’t appeal to fear of rejection, or injustice, or loss. It thrusts a claw right into that primal part of the human psyche that is concerned with nothing more than survival.
A group brandishing sticks mercilessly attacks a foreign dog, who writhes in agony on the floor, until he is able to escape. His battered body hurtles through the night as he runs for his life, with the horror of unimaginable cruelty on his heels. I don’t think I understood the meaning of “bloodcurdling” until I heard the screams in that scene.
This is not child’s play. It is entertaining, but brutally so. It gnaws at the fabric of South African society – not unlike a dog with a bone. But it illustrates that while our country may be once bitten twice shy, it is also resilient, brave, and brimming with dogged optimism.
