As long as you possess a healthy appetite for the unhinged, you would definitely be remiss to miss out on Bad Dog, a truly arresting new play which premiered this past weekend at Miami New Drama’s Colony Theatre. This production marks a major breakthrough for its playwright Harley Elias, whose artistry is also on display at various locations around the Colony Theatre through MND’s immersive Lincoln Road Hustle. As Bad Dog director Michel Hausmann notes in the show’s program, Elias’s work has otherwise been “mostly unproduced,” something that makes this startlingly provocative play all the more worth commenting on.
Set during the Art Basel festival in an upscale Miami gallery, the show centers on the exhibition of an experiential art piece called Bad Dog. For its duration, artist David will live 24/7 as a dog, with all the outrageous implications that that entails. He will eat, sleep, and even do his business as a dog—and can interact with others, including the gallery staff now charged with caring for him, only as a dog would.
Though this simple if surreal premise is a gold-mine of situational humor, Elias turns out to have much more up his sleeve than low-brow jokes about pee-pads and pooper scoopers. Instead, what begins as a fairly straightforward satire of art-world pretension continuously reveals new layers of moral complexity as our understanding evolves.
One of the first such revelations comes in the form of a message that David—who otherwise appears in the play almost entirely in the guise of his dog alter-ego “Buddy”— has crafted to be shared at his exhibition’s opening. In an overwrought speech punctuated by projections, it describes his debasing act as a statement related to the marginalization of his Jewish identity and to the art world’s constant insistence that he commodify it.
It’s an absurd rationale, but not an entirely incoherent one, which leaves an uncomfortable amount of room for ambiguity in how seriously to take it all. Is it wrong of us to laugh at David’s self-important posturing given the real spectre of antisemitism he is attempting to respond to? Is his art project Elias’s way of lampooning those who take identity politics too seriously—or might we imagine that David himself is in on the joke?
As you might expect after learning that Bad Dog is part of Miami New Drama’s Jewish Play Initiative, later developments in the play explore David’s religious identity in a more nuanced way, highlighting the historical dehumanization of Jewish populations in the process.
Meanwhile, contrary to what the play’s title might suggest, it is the scheming and backstabbing of Bad Dog’s three human characters that propels most of its action. As the haughty and abrasive Gallerist Janet barks orders at her two underlings—referred to in the show’s program as only the Gallerina and the Assistant—it is immediately clear that she is the “top dog” in their dysfunctional little ecosystem. In giving the Gallerina a nominally more prestigious “position” Janet has manufactured a rivalry between them that keeps both slavishly devoted to her.
This is the status quo, at least, until the Gallerina sees an opportunity to seize control of the situation by exploiting the restrictions on David’s agency. Given hints that he may not be what he seems, you may well find yourself rooting for her, at least at first. But, without spoiling any more of Bad Dog’s surprises, her actions take on very different implications in light of later reveals.
Each destabilizing twist takes Bad Dog into stranger, more electric territory, though at moments the play seemed to get bogged down in its own mechanisms. A bit of streamlining might sharpen focus without detracting from the slow build, and a few extraneous plot elements could probably be done away with entirely.
Overall, though, this play is one that succeeds on at least three different levels. As a comedy, it keeps us thoroughly entertained between the embodied spectacle of David-as-Buddy and its destabilizing consequences. As a drama, it brings real emotional stakes to its improbable circumstances, resulting in several genuinely devastating moments. Yet what distinguishes Bad Dog even further are the subversive social implications of the philosophical questions that it explores.
To name a few: Is there any meaningful difference between the artifice of art and other, more maligned forms of untruth? Is there really such a thing as going too far for “art’s sake”—or is all fair in aesthetics? In a world saturated with lies, is being “dishonest” actually the only way to get ahead?
Elias’s script investigates these quandaries in elegant, incisive dialogue, proving just as adept at crafting poignant monologues as sharp comedic banter. And though the cast of this production is excellent across the board, it is actor Caleb Scott who pulls off the most obviously impressive feat in portraying “Buddy.”
Not only does he clearly capture the essence of “dog” in his encompassing physicality, but he has enough command of his cross-species masquerade to meaningfully convey aspects of his inner state.Thanks to his commitment, we never question the idea that Scott’s character David is fully committed to being Buddy in as realistic a sense as possible—butt-sniffing and all.
Mia Matthew’s performance as Gallerist hits the nail on the head with her hilarious portrayal of an all-too recognizable breed of out-of-touch art-world eccentric. Liba Vaynberg brings the necessary nuance to her role as the Gallerina, a chameleonic character whose true nature is perhaps the hardest to pin down. With her innately captivating presence, Vaynberg always seems able to command the audience’s attention, even during a lengthy solo speech.
