Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel at Battersea Arts Centre

For reasons I do not quite understand (fire and covid excepting) I had not been to Battersea Arts Centre for several years and I was very glad to go back.

What pulled me back was Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel or, to be more precise, the reviews I read of it on Twitter. The final straw was a tweet from Dan Rebellato (playwright and Professor of Contemporary Theatre) which I read late at night and booked the show immediately afterwards.

The show has been selling very well and the best seat I could get was at the end of the second row (B1). It was a Pay What You Can event and I went for the recommended £14.

Things had changed a little since my previous visit, in particular the bar has stopped doing food, other than pizza, which was bit of a shame. Still, the beer was very nice.

The show was in the former Council Chamber on the first floor, a delightfully grubby space.

Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel is a difficult show to describe, as the name suggests. The obvious things are that it is a one-person show written and performed by Tim Crouch which mixes observations on theatre with stand-up comedy. But that tells you nothing important.

The show starts with Tim describing a theatre during a performance, commenting on the prices of the seats, the type of people in them and what they are up to before moving on to the play itself, King Lear Act III. The play takes a turn for a weird when Tim points to the fool and explains that he is the actor playing that role. It turns further when he describes the cars parked outside of Gloucester's house.

The story sort of went from there with Tim switching between guide and himself (?) indicated by the wearing and removal of a virtual reality headset. As himself (or the performer of another role) he commented on the state of theatre and threw in a few jokes, ending on quite a good one about a penguin.

Somewhere he asked the question, "Who is saying these words", and while the answer, "I am", was factually correct it was of little help as the "I" was open to many questions.

Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel may sound something like a dog's dinner (poor pun intended) but the elements worked well together and the show both entertained and stimulated in large amounts. I don't know what it was, but I liked it.