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By Carol Davis
 SAN DIEGO-OK! Wandering lost tribes, wandering in the desert for forty years, San Francisco Traveling Jewish Theatre and now Dog Act. I get it! OH! You don’t know about Dog Act? Well, let me tell you a story. Isn’t that what storytellers do, pass down from one generation to the next the stories as they knew or remembered them?
Once upon a time in the post apocalyptic world of playwright Liz Duffy Adams' creative mind a traveling vaudevillian act complete with a performing artist and her dog-man companion are on their way to China. They are what’s left of the traveling show they once had (originally they are said to have a dozen in the company). When we meet them they are trying to figure out how to get to China via a Northwest route to perform a gig. How they plan to get their cart (Beeb Salzer) across the ocean is another one of those leaps of faith Duffy Adams wants us to hold dear.
One of their biggest concerns, though, has nothing to do with how this colorful and filled to the brim with odds and ends cart will do in the water, but rather what kind of an act they can put together between the two of them to entertain and sustain any audience they may come upon along the way. Do they sing, dance, perform or tell stories? Needless to say no matter what they decide they do come across some p r e t t y interesting characters. Here is where we pick up this story.
Then as now, their journey was and is fraught with dangerous, competitive and wrangling characters whom you might say don’t have Dog (Jason Connors) and Rosetta’s (Liv Killgren) interests at heart. The goal of all of them though is survival. Then as now, Dog Act is more than worthy of another look-see.
How fitting then, (I digress) for the once nomadic Moxie Theatre Company to re-launch Duffy Adams dark comedy Dog Act, to kick off their fifth season in their new Rolando digs (once home to Cygnet Theatre now operating in Old Town) which they recently moved in to. In 2005, their premiere season, they mounted Dog Act and billed it as the San Diego premiere of Duffy Adams work.
Back to our story. The world as these travelers knew it has collapsed. It is topsy-turvy, done, over. Modern civilization has eroded and the English language they once spoke has been fragmented and bastardized. What we have left is a culture made up of leftovers; leftover fears, leftover phrases, leftover literature and leftover traditions. Sudden earthquakes and climate changes take place as quickly as one gets a sneeze out. Food is scavenged, animals are mutated and trust is a thing of the past.
Warring tribes lurk about. There is also talk of some raging battles in the Southwest. Everything is in a state of uncertainty and somewhere in all the mess Rosetta Stone and Dog are being stalked by two thugs Bud and Coke (Rob Kirk and Justin Lang) whose leader was none other than a gal named ‘Wendy’ (from Peter Pan?)
(The good news about the two thugs is that they still remembered that Wendy, before she was no longer on the scene, forbade them to bother ‘vaudevillians’.)
Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse for the couple, they meet up with two other wandering minstrels Vera Similitude (M’Lafi Thompson) and her slave Jo Jo the bald faced liar (Melissa Fernandes). Vera, can only tell the truth, so she claims. This is her biggest asset. Jo Jo’s one asset is that
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she stands on (soap) boxes and recites long almost without taking a breath, head scratching tales. That might be a good actto keep Zetta and Dog agree. When she’s not performing, JoJo plays on her Etch A Sketch. (Yup, a holdover!)
While the two different groups decide they might be safer traveling together, they form a shaky alliance but neither trusts the other. It seems Vera recognizes Dog and knows the truth about who he is. Dog denies it but Vera can be very persuasive. But for the fact that Bud and Coke are lying in wait, we might have seen a fight to the finish. It actually almost happened.
It’s a hoot, and a howl (pardon the pun as Dog really does talk, not howl) but leaves much to think about. The world the playwright shows us is brutal, no prisoners taken with memories of the ‘good old days’ including an Adam and Eve parody and bringing us up to the postmodern day world of greed, wealth and power laced into this brave new world of confusion. It’s a two hour hold-your-breath-what’-coming- next performance.
There is a good amount of swearing (hard core) along with references to Shakespeare and other notable playwrights. Needless to say Duffy Adams must have had a ball writing this play. I had a ball watching and listening. It’s about the language and in Dog Act we get an ear full of mispronounced words, gibberish, fractured phrases and just plain nonsense but it all makes sense.
Directed with glee, I’m sure by founding mother Delicia Turner Sonnenberg who along with her wonderful cast of performers is another notch in Moxie’s belt. M’Lafi Thompson who is a strong presence on any stage, is a stalwart as Vera. She is as majestic as she is commanding, as strong as she is convincing and as cunning as she is candid.
Liv Killgren, who has been away from the stage too long, is more than convincing as the leader of this small troupe. Her Rosetta is right on target. Jason Connor, also a talented musician in his own right; he is responsible for the musical arrangements, is a more grown up pup than he was five years ago, but just as charming and loveable, none the less. Did you ever see a dog playing a guitar and singing?
Melissa Fernandes as JoJo (she stood in for Jo Anne Glover the night I saw the show) is as talented as ever showing us her natural abilities and versatility having just finished performing in another of Liz Duffy Adams' plays, Drink Me (reviewed earlier). Both Rob Kirk and Justin Lang do yeoman’s work as the two lost boys from whatever tribe it was they escaped. But don’t be misled they are mean and somewhat demented little buggers not some innocents lost on an island.
Beeb Salzer’s wonderfully busy and colorful cart along with Ashley Jenks/Chelsea Whitmore lighting design and Michelle Hunt-Souza’s creative and perfect costumes makes this Moxie production a feast for the eyes and ears. Storytellers can revel at the depth of this kind of bold and creative imagination. Hats off to Moxie.
Dog Act runs through Nov. 22 at the Rolando Theatre, 6663 El Cajon Blvd.
For more information visitwww.moxietheatre.com
See you at the theatre.
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