Tilda looks particularly majestic, as her human, award-winning theatre-maker Lucy Heffernan watches lovingly. Photo: Lucy Heffernan.
Ever looked into a dog’s eyes and felt seen? MERRIGONG X presents a howlingly original new musical perfect for you.
Dog People sniffs around the big themes of love, loyalty and loss — with ears pricked and tail wagging.
Created by award-winning theatre-maker Lucy Heffernan, this alt-rock-meets-love-ballad journey explores what it means to be human by channelling our canine cousins. Because when it comes to heartache, devotion and chasing the occasional tail, maybe we’re not so different from dogs after all.
For Heffernan, who grew up with dogs, the subject matter for her next work seemed obvious. Dog People was inspired by her own “pandemic puppy” — a staffy-pug cross named Tilda.
“When COVID hit, the work dried up and I thought, if there was ever a time to get a dog myself, it’s now,” she says.
“I don’t have children myself and all my love gets poured into Tilda. When I first got her, I wrote a love song for her to express my feelings. I imagined it as a duet, with her singing back to me.”
The show features a total of 10 original songs Heffernan composed, performed onstage by a band.
Audiences can expect a story about family, about watching parents age and move into a new stage of life — and even beyond life.
In one scene, a dog named Sam sings The Howling Song to express his despair and heartbreak when his owner moves into a nursing home.
“It’s kind of an homage to Nick Cave’s The Weeping Song,” Heffernan says.
Tilda the pandemic puppy inspired Heffernan’s latest production Dog People. Photo: Lucy Heffernan.
The play also highlights the power of connection our fur babies hold.
“After we got Tilda we started going to dog parks and meeting other ‘dog people’, and it became my whole world,” Heffernan says.
“When we walk her, people stop to talk to us. That would never happen without her. A dog is an instant icebreaker between humans.”
Despite the heavy nature of some of the themes, the production is made joyful through music and the many “familiar moments” any dog person will appreciate.
“It’s full of those frustrating, joyful, awkward moments any dog owner would recognise. Like when your dog’s at the park and it’s time to leave, and you’re trying hard as hell to get them back and it’s impossible. Or they do a poo and you don’t have a baggie,” Heffernan says. “If you’re a dog person, this is a play for you.”
MERRIGONGX supports diverse works that place artists and their practice at the centre of their community — from in-house creative developments to full-blown public presentations of new work.
Heffernan’s critically acclaimed one-woman show Party Girl (MERRIGONGX 2019, Crack Theatre Festival, Adelaide Fringe, KXT) won the Week Four award for Best Theatre/Physical Theatre at the 2023 Adelaide Fringe Festival and made its international debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2024.
For Dog People, she’s joined by director Tim Maddock (Sydney Theatre Company’s Like A Fishbone) and performers Byron Davis (University of Wollongong’s YEAH, NAH!), Annie Byron (Sydney Theatre Company’s Mosquitoes) and Geoff Morrell (Amazon Prime’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power).
Dog People is presented at Bruce Gordon Theatre on Thursday 19, Friday 20 and Saturday 21 June, from 7:30 pm. Fetch your tickets now via TicketSearch and pay what you feel.
