A night at the thetare for your canine companion
Glasgow Arts Festival: A shaggy dog story which claims to be the world’s first theatre production for canines is to be performed.
Drama company Hopscotch is to stage its Who Stole My Sausage? play at the city’s West End festival in front of a four-legged audience over the weekend.
The production features sights, sounds and smells designed to capture the attention of doggy theatre-goers. The play will be performed six times in Dowanhill Park on Saturday and Sunday. Just like human theatre, it will have tickets, ushers, food and drink, toilets, and a matinee pensioner’s performance for dogs over the age of 10.
Writer and director Ross Stenhouse said the play was the idea of festival director Michael Dale, who was inspired by watching dogs and their owners in the park.
Mr Stenhouse added: “He had a flash of genius, and realised that dogs already have their own culture, their own clothes, salons, therapists and food, so why shouldn’t they have their own theatre too?
“Without letting the cat out of the bag, the story is an emotional rollercoaster for dogs involving the theft of a sausage from the Houndland area of Glasgow.
“Inspector Jack Russell of the backyard is assigned to the case, and after he sniffs around for clues and follows a few leads, the perpetrator has his collar felt and ends up in the doghouse.”
The play features a cast of four, including one hound who may or may not be more than he appears, who will be joined on stage by a barbeque that will waft the smell of sizzling sausages over the audience.
Mr Stenhouse said: “It has all been designed to keep the dogs entertained, so there will be lots of noise, balls and people running about, and a local pet shop will hand out special doggy bags to every audience member.
“We have no idea how it will go, to be honest, but there has been a lot of interest so who knows where it will take us – perhaps Crufts beckons.”
