Dogfall
Encyclopedia
Dogfall is an Australian play
written by Caleb Lewis
. The first production was launched at the Bakehouse theatre
in Adelaide
, South Australia
from 2–17 November 2007.
1916. The Somme. Alone in their bunker Will and Jack fight to survive the war whole. But the battle keeps shifting and the enemy changes. And then the dogs begin to fall...
Drawing on the traditions of absurdist writers Albert Camus
, Samuel Beckett
, and Eugène Ionesco
, and on the philosophies of David Hume
and Arthur Schopenhauer
, Dogfall is a dark existential paean to the madness of war and the animal yearning for annihilation that lies deep in the shadow of every man’s heart.
From the Somme to Stalingrad
, Vietnam
to Kuwait
, Dogfall unflinchingly depicts the absurdity of war; a world turned upside down, where outside it is literally raining cats and dogs, men behave like beasts, and death is all around.
Stylistically, the play makes a gradual transference from naturalistic
convention into absurdism
. There is a unity of character and psychology
throughout, but there is no unity of time and location to the outside world. Instead, with each scene the play jumps forward to a new war, a fresh conflict and different enemies. The characters transform into different races and configurations of opposing threat to one another. As the scenes change, the power struggles reverse, and the contradictory alliances begin to erode their intellectual capacity for reason. This ends in a complete breakdown in communication, character, personality and understanding of why they are stuck in this perpetual flux.
As the dog fall grows heavier and heavier, Will and Jack must decide what they are fighting for and what they will lose in final victory.
Dogfall is a groundbreaking new script, sweeping in scope. Though classical in tone, it is essentially a modernist deconstruction
of our history compressed and distilled into a theatrical landscape that echoes the great plays of the 20th century.
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
written by Caleb Lewis
Caleb Lewis
Caleb Lewis is an Australian playwright raised in Melbourne and Adelaide and currently residing in Sydney.-Works:Lewis studied drama and playwriting at the Flinders University Drama Centre under playwright Verity Laughton. In 2002 he began a year-long mentorship with Nick Enright and began work on...
. The first production was launched at the Bakehouse theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
from 2–17 November 2007.
Plot
The Sky is Falling.1916. The Somme. Alone in their bunker Will and Jack fight to survive the war whole. But the battle keeps shifting and the enemy changes. And then the dogs begin to fall...
Drawing on the traditions of absurdist writers Albert Camus
Albert Camus
Albert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...
, Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
, and Eugène Ionesco
Eugène Ionesco
Eugène Ionesco was a Romanian and French playwright and dramatist, and one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd...
, and on the philosophies of David Hume
David Hume
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...
and Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher known for his pessimism and philosophical clarity. At age 25, he published his doctoral dissertation, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, which examined the four separate manifestations of reason in the phenomenal...
, Dogfall is a dark existential paean to the madness of war and the animal yearning for annihilation that lies deep in the shadow of every man’s heart.
From the Somme to Stalingrad
Volgograd
Volgograd , formerly called Tsaritsyn and Stalingrad is an important industrial city and the administrative center of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. It is long, north to south, situated on the western bank of the Volga River...
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
to Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
, Dogfall unflinchingly depicts the absurdity of war; a world turned upside down, where outside it is literally raining cats and dogs, men behave like beasts, and death is all around.
Stylistically, the play makes a gradual transference from naturalistic
Naturalism (literature)
Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...
convention into absurdism
Theatre of the Absurd
The Theatre of the Absurd is a designation for particular plays of absurdist fiction, written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, as well as to the style of theatre which has evolved from their work...
. There is a unity of character and psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
throughout, but there is no unity of time and location to the outside world. Instead, with each scene the play jumps forward to a new war, a fresh conflict and different enemies. The characters transform into different races and configurations of opposing threat to one another. As the scenes change, the power struggles reverse, and the contradictory alliances begin to erode their intellectual capacity for reason. This ends in a complete breakdown in communication, character, personality and understanding of why they are stuck in this perpetual flux.
As the dog fall grows heavier and heavier, Will and Jack must decide what they are fighting for and what they will lose in final victory.
Dogfall is a groundbreaking new script, sweeping in scope. Though classical in tone, it is essentially a modernist deconstruction
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a term introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1967 book Of Grammatology. Although he carefully avoided defining the term directly, he sought to apply Martin Heidegger's concept of Destruktion or Abbau, to textual reading...
of our history compressed and distilled into a theatrical landscape that echoes the great plays of the 20th century.
Crew
- Director: Justin McGuinness
- Composer: Peter Nielsen
- Lighting: Nic Mollison
- Costume & Props: Tsubi Du
- Publicity: Antje Guenther
- Produced by: TheimaGen