Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs) (Oberon Modern Plays)

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You don’t realise quite how much this play has grabbed you till the closing moments. Absolutely brilliant. Another fantastic example of the quality theatre that HOME is bringing to Manchester.”– Quiet Man Dave

I’ve listened to The Damned, Jimi Hendrix, Kate Tempest, Purcell, John Taverner, PJ Harvey, Portishead, Tom Jones, Monteverdi and Mozart. Together we interrogated John Gay’s original and Bertolt Brecht’s revision: we looked for ways to strengthen what we perceived as weaknesses, we ranted about the world and what makes us furious, and realised we were fired up to make a new Beggar’s Opera for our times. Mrs Peachum starts the mayhem by paying Macheath to bump off her husband’s political rival Goodman. Rita Fatania is a joy to watch as she prowls around her hapless husband, trussed up in multiple kinds of leopard print. And although Angela Hardie as her daughter Polly feels like she’s parachuted in from another show entirely, she has a sweet charisma that comes into its own once her bad-boy lover Macheath proves true to form. Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs) director Mike Shepherd discusses his research and vision for the production. Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.One summer, a young woman was house-sitting for a family who were away on vacation. They lived in a large downtown apartment and she was tasked with taking care of their dog, a golden retriever. But in the peak of summer it can receive more than 130,000 a month, including 8,400 cruelty reports. But then – the audience is barked "Over the top!" after the men, into a field (direction by Matthew Dunster). We pass soldiers, mired in mud, tangled in structures, calling, groaning. Against the reality of the trees, such make-believe seems tawdry. Inside the wood, red lines of light suggest tracer fire; images of soldiers are suspended between trunks, lie among the leaves and twigs. Jon Bausor's design inspires heart-strong contemplation. Instead, the actors continue the too-obvious pretence. No matter how well done, it feels like a travesty of horror. Wyn Griffith, in his tweed suit, walking through the trees and remembering, as so simply and movingly performed by Michael Elwyn, would have been enough.

Kneehigh’s version of The Beggar’s Opera is brought bang up to date and couldn’t be more enthralling… Inventive… Excellent stuff.”– Daily Post Wales All of this and much more has fuelled Carl’s brilliant script. Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs) is a dark musical combined with high octane farce and a collection of songs culled from the edge of existence-some angry, some sweet. All combined to create a portrait of a world hanging by a thread. Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and Other Love Songs) is, as the title suggests, a musical, and the music regularly interspersed throughout the narrative is fitting and borrows from a range of genres; the songs serve to further the narrative and add something to the audience’s understanding of the characters. The music, composed by Charles Hazlewood, is performed live on stage and creates a music concert feel to the piece and allows for a repartee between the band and the actors; indeed some of the band take on roles as part of Mac’s gang and the actors themselves all play an instrument to contribute to the soundscape. In the same spirit of immersion, the set designed by Michael Vale is a fantastic and intricate scaffolding that the actors climb up and down and repurpose to suit the needs of the scene, all done underneath an ever present noose that hangs as a warning and reminder of our characters’ inevitable fate. Get all the news from your area – as well as features, entertainment, sport and the latest on Lanarkshire’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic – straight to your fingertips, 24/7. In 1917, the exact same story was being told during World War I,” says Dr Clarke – only the wallet is dropped on the underground, and the man it belongs to is German, and warns about a bombing raid on Halloween. It’s a rumour that feeds the xenophobia that often rears its head during insecure times of war and terrorism, perpetuating any fear already present in the individual listening and perhaps later sharing.The Scottish SPCA is now appealing for anyone with information about the incident to come forward to help The Dead Dog in the Suitcase is an urban legend about a young woman who discovers that a golden retriever she was supposed to care for has passed away. Grose tinkers with the plot to reconceive Macheath as a contemporary contract killer who blithely dispatches a politician and then shoots his dog, claiming it to be a witness. It's a typical stroke of Kneehigh's attention to detail that when the canine's puppet corpse is later discovered, there are puppet flies buzzing around it.

The white and tan Staffordshire bull terrier cross was discovered inside a purple-wheeled holdall, partially wrapped in a child’s pink fleece top in a wooded area in Alexander Street on Sunday, November 12. Dr Leanne Calvert, a folklore expert and history lecturer at Hertfordshire University, agrees adding, “the ‘dead dog in a suitcase’ story thrives in urban areas arguably because it is a social comment on unreasonable bosses and the pressures of work and crime and distrust in cities. Would you ever take a stranger's offer to carry your bag off a train in London? That's a red flag for most people.” Wild and anarchic and often very funny… The cast works as a perfect ensemble. It’s all very entertaining… Very much of and for our time. ”– British Theatre Guide Finally, director Mike Shepherd highlights a parallel between the story of our antihero Macheath and that of Mr Punch (of Punch and Judy fame) through the use of puppetry, expertly led by Sarah Wright at this performance as chief puppeteer. From Punch, to dogs and crying babies, the puppets serve to remind the audience how ridiculous and pantomimic the actions of the real world characters can seem at times, forcing us to question who the real heroes and villains are in our society. An exceptional piece of theatre not to be missed… The finale is truly explosive, whipping the audience into an immediate standing ovation.”– Canal StreetWe would always urge the public to take extra care to dispose of their rubbish responsibly so animals aren’t hurt. We’re grateful to the firefighters for their help - it’s a great example of what we can achieve together for animal welfare." When Carl announced the title was to be ‘Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs)’ there were raised eyebrows and pleas for us to change it to something more “accessible” but we held out. It seemed an important statement of intent that he wasn’t simply adapting John Gay’s original but radically re-writing it. Having been fired up we now wanted to leap far away from the comfort zone. As Carl wrote at the time: “….the story of a dead dog in a suitcase is a famous urban myth (google it) It’s a modern folklore and that feels like what our Beggar’s Opera is too. If John Gay’s was highwaymen, prostitutes and street thieves then ours is about the mythic underbelly of NOW-corporate conspiracy, hit men, weirdowarped Robin Hood types, the end of civilisation, dead dogs in suitcases…I mean what the HELL is the world coming to?” One day, she came to the apartment and found the dog lying dead in the middle of the living room. When she knelt down and examined the dog, she found a big bone lodged in his throat. He must have choked to death on the food she left during the night. Echoing Gay’s original, the live score plunders the sounds of our times. Trip hop combines with folk, Renaissance polyphony with psychedelia, ska with grime and dubstep to create a gorgeous and powerful musical mix. A merciless theatrical onslaught on the eternal theme of the human capacity for greed and corruption.”– The Stage

For instance, you certainly don’t believe that Macheath could be as bad as everyone says he is, despite watching him murder someone in the opening scenes. Dominic Marsh is sexy and alluring throughout and we are won over by his charm, just the same as poor Polly and Lucy and all the other girls he’s deceived. The Peachums follow a Macbeth style tragic trajectory as their corruption and greed gets the better of them and they sink further into depravity and anarchy, which is delicious to watch. Rina Fatania as Mrs Peachum is sinister and silly in equal measure – an incredibly disturbed and disturbing portrayal of a power-hungry manipulator. Stand out performance goes to Georgia Frost as the put-upon Filch, who acquires a series of increasingly severe injuries throughout Act One as the Peachum’s dogsbody. Frost also multi-roles a range of distinctly different characters that are integral to the plot, and provides some stunning vocals in her solo song. A squirrel found trapped in a toilet roll and a deer tangled up in a football net were among the calls received by the RSPCA. Credit: RSPCA Dominic Marsh's Macheath has sufficient reserves of baby-faced charm to get away with murder. Carly Bawden's peerless Polly Peachum is the prim heir to a pilchard fortune, and there's a fine turn from Rina Fatania as her vulgarian mother, who turns out to be the real criminal mastermind of the operation. The macabre concluding tableau is either a thrilling alternative to Gay's slightly pat ending, or a grotesque over-compensation. But true to form, Kneehigh have come up with a piece that is not the Beggar's Opera so much as an opera which beggars belief.

Mike Shepherd's production delights on many levels, but primarily succeeds because Charles Hazlewood's score provides a superior form of jukebox. Hazlewood has the ability to create through-composed sequences of genuine thematic development, but also an ear wide enough to suggest that bawdy 18th-century airs and catches share a direct bloodline with ska, grime and dubstep. If there's a moral to be drawn from this strange tale, it’s one of skepticism. Don’t trust kind randoms on the tube, girls called Chelsey, your own friends – and definitely don’t believe everything you hear on a podcast. As well as Carl, it’s been thrilling to work with Charles Hazlewood whose score, great skill and spirit have taken us further than we dared, and I’m indebted to the brilliance of my creative team and the pioneering spirits of Gemma Bodinetz and Deborah Aydon of the Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse for making this happen. Thank you! Mayor Goodman has been assassinated. Contract killer Macheath has just married Pretty Polly Peachum and Mr and Mrs Peachum aren’t happy. Not one bit. As the show ends, the audience jumps to its feet en masse for an uproarious standing ovation.”– Cultural Shenanigans