The Dog Show: Come. Sit. Stay.

 

Gizel Jiménez, A.J. Shively, Jordan Matthew Brown and Angela Reed. Photo credit: Jeremy Daniel

At The Dog Show: Come. Sit. Stay, currently playing at The Triad Theater, man’s best friend takes center stage. Besides the four humans performing nearly two dozen canine-oriented monologues in the 75-minute show, animal companions (and their owners) can watch all the furry drama unfold from Pooch Seats, complete with a soft pet bed and metal water bowl.  

The comedy celebrates all the wonderful personas our four-legged friends embody as the actors (Jordan Matthew Brown, Gizel Jiménez, Angela Reed and A.J. Shively) take turns manifesting different breeds, from the militant German shepherd police dog, Rambo, to the famed collie, Lassie.

 

All monologues are delivered from the animal’s perspective, with the actors including physical traits when possible. Especially adept is Jiménez, with chocolate brown eyes and a soft smile that beguiles the audience as she recounts the reasons behind the day’s messy "accidents" in the house. Shively, a Tony-nominee for Paradise Square, also elevates the doggie humor as a Great Dane whose legs become entangled in a stool, mimicking the glee and confusion only an over-excited hound can provide.

Gizel Jiménez. Photo credit: Jeremy Daniel

The fast-paced show pairs the actor's performances with images of their alter animal on a screen, reinforcing that each story comes from a dog’s perspective. Playwright David Javerbaum’s experience as an executive producer and head writer of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” shows as he infuses a razor-sharp wit into bite-sized, easily digestible dialogue. The parade of pets covers an assortment of topics: from the virtues of floor chicken to the human penchant of dressing up their furry friends (something that should only occur on Christmas and Rosh Hashana).

Ably directed by Richard Israel (Violet, “Big Little Lies”), each monologue invites hilarity and then smoothly moves into the new one. While the vignettes highlight familiar doggie experiences that pet owners will appreciate that special warm resonance dogs give their humans sometimes gets lost in all the laughter.

The limited engagement runs at The Triad Theater (158 W. 72nd Street) through November 29. Pooch seats (two available each show) are $129 and include one chair and a dog bed. Tickets are $49 to $99. For a performance schedule, see https://www.dogshownyc.com/.

Reverse Transcription

It is difficult to review Reverse Transcription, an evening of plays covering AIDS and covid, as theatre. The first piece, Robert Chesley's Dog Plays, is a story of despair and death written by a despairing and dying playwright. The second, A Variant Strain, written by Johnathan Adler and Jim Petosa as a continuation of the first, brings the AIDS-stricken main character into the days of covid. These plays depict deep pain, grief, and loss, and they are vivid reminders, if any are needed, of the tragedy of AIDS-related and covid-related deaths. I honor the emotions of these plays and I am sorry for everyone's losses.

Johnathan Tindle, James Patrick Nelson
Photo: Stan Barouh

However, and this is the dicey part, watching these plays was a deeply unpleasant, abrasive experience unmitigated by art or insight. The playwrights' anger lashed out at the audience, and I kept thinking, "What the fuck did we ever do to you?" Rather than inviting the audience in, the pieces put up blockades of blame and manipulation. 

Attacking your audience with loud, endless speeches and unremitting rage is not good writing, at least in my opinion. (Though some of the speeches were truly excellent.) How about a little humor? Warmth? Likeability? Look at Angels in America, The Normal Heart, even Boys in the Band. There are genuine people in those plays, not just spewing mouthpieces. It was pretty much impossible to feel involved and sympathetic at Reverse Transcription, except for the brief scene shown above, where the admirable Johnathan Tindle brought a depth and sensitivity otherwise missing in the evening. 

I agree that the shows' creators have the right to produce exactly what they want to produce. I agree that anger is a legitimate topic for theatre. I agree that AIDS was an unimaginably horrible agent of destruction. I think every day of my friends who have been dead half my life and all they have missed. But those plays being in the audience's faces for two hours added nothing to our existence or understanding and, well, cost us those two hours.

I realize as I write this that I was angry watching the plays and am angrier now. Maybe this means that Reverse Transcription was actually successful. I don't know. But I sure don't recommend that you go and see it.

Wendy Caster