Dog Days at Theatre503

I go to Theatre503 for edgy drama and that is exactly what Dog Days was, though it pretended otherwise at first.

A middle aged married couple were at home planning their impeding trail separation. As part of this they were trying to sell their house but had had little luck so far.

Then a young couple arrived to have a look having noticed the For Sale sign. The older couple were reluctant to let them in but the young couple were forceful in a charming way. They quickly decided to buy the house but to do so privately to avoid fees.

In preparation for their move the couple became frequent visitors and made themselves more at home each time.

There was a lot of humour generated from the clash of ages and attitudes and, for example, the old woman looked aghast when the young woman talked about using garlic to deal with her private yeast problems.

The young couple pried a lot on the lives of the older couple and through this some skeletons fell out of the cupboard. These concerned "Juicy Lucy" and their son Paul, among other things, and started to explain why the older couple were considering separation and divorce.

This second phase of the play edged its mood towards the dark side and set things up for the final.

I'll not say too much about that as I want you to see and enjoy the play as much as I did but I can reveal that we learnt more about the young couple and their motives.

And something horrible happens.

The bizarre situation resolved its self into something stable and approaching normal, while the steps taken to get there were anything but normal.

Dog Days balanced the light and the dark well as it told its disturbing story. The play relied on the interactions of four well-defined and very different characters and all four actors played their part well.

Dog Days was exactly the sort of play that I expect from Theatre503 and they did a fine job with it. I'll be back hoping to see more plays like that.