Wild Dogs

It got great reviews, so I was expecting great things. But my reaction was mixed. A very strong cast - it almost seems silly to mention the cast since Toronto area companies always have great casts these days - but an odd play. The setting was great - a nice forest edge, where the characters gathered to talk to the audience. the effect was rather tlike having someone read a long, fluid poem. The language was smooth and rythmic, so much so that I had a hard time not falling asleep in the middle. But the plot was almost non-existent - each character had a perspective to present, but vey little interaction with each other. So we had to listen to the outsiders who have lost their dogs, use this as a metaphor for their loss of a place in society.
A couple of things were quite jarring - especially the final statement by Spencer that he had killed Lily not because he feared she was a dog or a monster, but because she was a woman. This came out of nowhere and felt like a gratuitous nod to Nightwood as a feminist theatre. Not a good nod either! Taylor Trowbridge and Tamara Podemski gave particularly strong performances.