Stage Review - Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth (inD Theatre)
Stage Review - Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth
Presented By: inD Theatre - Bainbridge Island, WA
Show Run: June 01 - June 16, 2024
Date Reviewed: Thursday, June 06, 2024
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman
“Theatre of the Absurd.” That’s the phrase that Director Tom Challinor is using for his latest production with inD Theatre, Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth, a piece that is really two plays, meant to be performed together, and written by Tom Stoppard, he of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead fame. Reading a description like that makes one enter into the experience with a wary eye, clearly the play is going to be a bit off the wall in its telling, but knowing a bit about Stoppard, it’s also clear that it will be challenging to both the audience and to the idea of authority. Both are true of course, it is indeed told absurdly, but the way that Stoppard has written it almost normalizes the absurdity and after about ten minutes or so, it all starts to make sense. The plays could be done separately, but they’re designed to be told together, and it makes sense why, which I won’t give away here, but suffice it to say Cahoot’s Macbeth has some significant callbacks to Dogg’s Hamlet that tie the two inexorably together.
Dogg’s Hamlet is told in the language of, well, Dogg. Everyone here speaks Dogg, which consists of English words with different meanings. So, when the characters begin speaking, it sort of makes sense to the audience, but the language seems upside down. We understand the words, but they have no meaning to us in the context they’re being used. The vernacular becomes a little more familiar, though, when we hear three schoolchildren rehearsing their version of Hamlet, performed in English which, to these students, is a foreign language. When a delivery person enters the picture, to bring props for the show, the semantic dissonance is on full display, as the delivery person speaks English and not Dogg. Confusion reigns as the group performs a load-in of the set and the orders around what to bring in mean different things to each group. The dialogue is funny, but I find the whole exchange enlightening. The entire plot is generally simple, but what it uncovers is anything but, and I noticed a few things while watching this. First, as soon as the characters began speaking Dogg, my brain started trying to figure it out. And because only about 7% of communication is word-related (38% is vocal/inflection, and 55% is nonverbal), I felt like I was starting to crack the code after a few minutes. It’s a lot like Shakespeare, it usually takes me about ten minutes or so to become comfortable with the rhythm and dialogue before I can start to truly enjoy his work, and in the same way I started to become comfortable with Dogg, so much so that when English came back into the equation, it took me a minute to shift back. When considered on its own, Dogg’s Hamlet is at its heart a thesis on language and communication and how we work through the discomfort of semantic dissonance. The fun part of Dogg’s Hamlet is in the telling of the Shakespearean tale, which takes place during its second half, and is the payoff for the challenge of the first half. The tone of the delivery of this Hamlet must be similar to that if a nation with citizens who speak English as a second language were to recreate a Monty Python sketch, it’s a humorous respite for the mind before it gets back to work in Cahoot’s Macbeth.
In Cahoot’s Macbeth, we enter the world of Pavel Kahout, who had been barred by the Communist Government in Czechoslovakia from performing in public due to his involvement with a political movement deemed subversive. Kahout’s reaction to this was to develop a version of Macbeth to be performed in living rooms. And that’s where Cahoot’s Macbeth begins, in a living room with a company performing Macbeth, that is until the secret police comes knocking. Before the arrival of the police, the performance is passionate and true, the acting brilliant. Once they’re under the watchful eye of the authorities, their performance degrades into what could only be compared to an Italian read-through, referring to the practice when actors recite their lines as quickly as they can, typically with little to no emotion just to make sure the cast is comfortable with their lines. The officer in attendance makes it quite clear that he believes this group is engaged in a form of government subversion by way of their art, as he questions every person in the cast or that even enters the living room where the performance is taking place. The actors need to decide if they want to comply or challenge the officer, and once they make that decision, all is going smoothly enough until a surprise callback from Dogg’s Hamlet is made. At face value, Cahoot’s Macbeth is a statement about government oppression and a lack of personal freedom under a communist regime, but it’s through these callbacks and the performing of these two plays together that makes this an incredibly important piece of art.
The overall tone of Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth is one of simplicity, and this is carried through to the design of the inD Theatre production, which is told in the black box space of Rolling Bay Hall with just enough pieces and props to tell the story effectively, and lighting and sound designed by Eli Backer to complement the acting. What’s not simple about the design, though, are Dawn Janow’s costumes. From the Dogg speaking schoolchildren and their professor to the Shakespearean costumes in both plays, the costuming is very well proportioned and detailed, true to the telling of each of the Shakespearean plays. The beauty of a generally simple design is that it allows the audience to focus on the actors, leaving it to them to do the hard work of telling this layered and complex story.
And kudos to this entire ensemble. Speaking Dogg is not just about shuffling English words around to change their meaning, but it’s doing so in a way that when the language is spoken, the intonation of the words and the nonverbal components of the communication makes sense to the audience so that they can start to put the linguistic puzzle pieces together. In Dogg’s Hamlet, Sydney Kaser, Carin Young, and Erin Gabbard are the students rehearsing the play in their foreign tongue of English, but predominantly conversing between themselves and their teacher (Peter Cook) in Dogg. This trio of students does everything right to express themselves in Dogg, and when Helene Minassian appears on the scene as the English speaking delivery person, the interactions between all of them are both humorous and enlightening. Helene’s thick cockney is at times as difficult to understand as Dogg, or was that just my mind playing tricks on me. She is consistent though and I enjoyed watching the group navigate their communication gap. The rest of the cast make appearances during the Python-esque performance of Hamlet and are absolutely hilarious, and even more so in how they close out the first act, with a special callout to Amy Jo LaRubbio and James Sgambati on their death scenes.
When the attention turns to Cahoot’s Macbeth, the stellar acting continues. Johnathan Carter is Macbeth, Kendra Truett is Banquo (and an excellent Cahoot) and Amy Jo LaRubbio is Lady Macbeth, with the rest of the cast playing supporting characters in the play within a play. The pair are excellent, passionate and precise, that is until the secret police arrive, the officer played by James Sgambati. That’s when the Macbeth performances degrade into that quick run-through I described above. As good as Johnathan and Kendra are in their serious portrayals of the Macbeth spouses, James is even better in his turn as the secret police. This is a standout performance in a group that is excellent from top to bottom. He’s funny, but at the same time scary in his politics. He’s challenged by everyone, including Kate Pippinger’s character who owns the house/apartment where this version of Macbeth is being performed at.
Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth is comprised of two individual plays that could easily stand on their own and have a degree of importance in the telling of their stories, but when told together, as they were designed, they become a thesis on language, government oppression, and subversion. This is a piece that will sneak up on you. You’ll be challenged intellectually, linguistically, and emotionally, but when the dust settles, you’ll come to realize that what you just witnessed was a smart, important, entertaining, and very well acted evening of theatre.
Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth, presented by inD Theatre, runs on stage at Rolling Bay Hall on Bainbridge Island through June 16. For more information about the show, or to reserve a spot (there is no charge for tickets), visit https://www.indtheatre.org/.
