dog (KXT on Broadway) ★★★

Written by shayne. KXT on Broadway. May 24 – Jun 8, 2024

Laneikka Denne, who wrote Belvoir 25a’s Feminazi last year that I loved, takes centre stage with a fearless, raw performance as Sister in playwright shayne’s mental health drama, dog, a two hander about siblings dealing with the ramifications of living with, and living with someone with, Contamination Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Sister is struggling to function in the world due to her OCD. Having moved in with their brother (Jack Patten), the siblings struggle to navigate their lives around each other. Brother can’t understand Sister’s condition, thoughtlessly pushing them into states of distress without realising it. One day he tries to do something nice by buying Sister a puppy. At first things are good, but Sister’s OCD soon starts to impact the innocent pet as well.

The content warnings for dog are comprehensive. Playwright shayne was on hand in the foyer to talk the audience through them as they entered and it’s clear to see why they are taking them so seriously. This is a confronting show. Denne plays Sister’s distress forcefully, without a shred of vanity, in extended, wordless sequences of OCD sanitising objects and their own body, that show the extremes of their mental condition. This goes far beyond the “wipe everything down” early days of Covid-19. It’s not a show for the squeamish.

With no backstory or explanation, the audience is left to sit in the moment with Sister and Brother. Has Sister always suffered from OCD? We think not judging by Brother’s reactions. What set it off? We are given no clues. 

Brother and Sister have a suitably rough but affectionate dynamic, pushing each other without the need for social graces. As Brother drinks too much and obsesses about his ex, Sister tries to present a sense of normality, despite the multiple bottles of antiseptic that litter every flat surface.

The static locale is given dynamism thanks to Frankie Clarke’s lighting and Aisling Bermingham’s excellent sound design. The space breathes with life. Ruby Jenkins’ set design provides a raw and real backdrop and director Kim Hardwick melds all this together to produce a chilling, rural gothic tale.

With little dialogue, and little plot driving the story, dog is not a comfortable watch. The audience sits with the characters in their pain and watches that pain harm innocent others with no narrative arc giving us hope for a resolution. 

In showing us the realism of Contamination OCD, dog refuses to let us look away and the result is confronting. The show never quite elevates the situation into a compelling narrative to carry the audience through, but then maybe that’s the point… there is no reprieve from such a mental condition.