The Jungle Theater is launching its fall season with a pooch-themed show that turns the human-centered world that we know upside down, or, maybe, from a four-legged perspective, right side up.
Canines are the overlords in "Rich Dogs," and their two human butlers begin to fall in love while they are away at a show. The production opens Saturday, using the space at the Minneapolis theater in an exciting new way.
Here are five of the most unusual things about "Rich Dogs:"
Where the lobby's the stage. The theater's colorful street-facing foyer has sitting areas and nooks and crannies. The character of the space made it attractive for the creative team to have it as the place where the butlers hang out while waiting for their dog bosses.
Artistic director Christina Baldwin invoked Charles Ludlam's "theater is an event, not an object," to explain how different "Dogs" is from other productions that her theater has ever done.
"This event places the action in your lap and doesn't ask you for answers," Baldwin said. "We are together and enjoying the absurdity of it all together — with some really gorgeous music to boot!"
"Dogs" will have a regular run, but the intimate lobby setting does limit the number of tickets available for audience members.
An import from WAM. The Minneapolis-based trans-led multimedia company WeAreMarried founded by Jay Eisenberg, who was in "The Courtroom" and "Small Mouth Sounds" at the Jungle, and Shelby Richardson, whose credits include "The Wolves" at the same company.
Richardson is directing while Eisenberg stars in "Dogs" alongside Chelsie Newhard. The script was co-created by the three collaborators after devising sessions that ran from March to August. They came up with the concept for the show through improvisations.
It's all blue and yellow. That's the color palette for the costumes because dogs have dichromatic vision. They have only two types of cones (the receptors in the retina that provide the basis for color vision) in their eyes, and can only see blue and yellow. Humans have an additional cone — red — that allows us to see more combinations of colors.
But in the show, it's a dog's world and we see it through their eyes.
Roll over. Fetch. Sit. You know how dogs like to sniff everything and everywhere to find out what's what. Or to wag their tails and lick faces to say, "Hey, there, hello." Well, there's a lot of canine behavior slyly and comically embedded in the show. So, will the two butlers be wagging their tails, demonstrating how deeply they've been impacted by their masters?
Sorry dogs, the lobby is off-limits. Finally, there are no live pooches in the show. Poo. However, sound designer Dan Dukich has created an audio track that makes their presence felt. And as pet keepers know, as much as we like to think that we are the caretakers of our dogs, they really are the owners of us. Woof, woof!
'Rich Dogs'
Where: Jungle Theater, 2951 Lyndale Av. S., Mpls.
When: Through Oct. 8.
Tickets: Limited. $15-$90. Pay-as-you-are. 612-822-7063 or jungletheater.org.
Protocol: Masks required for Wednesday evening performances.
