(4 / 5)

I’m not sure why I decided to do this to myself. A huge dog lover, I cry at anything to do with animals, whether happy or sad, and I am more likely to smile and say hello to dogs on the street than their owners. So why I thought “Hey, let’s go to a show about dead dogs” I don’t know. This started off disastrous – with me absolutely sobbing… let’s get into it. 

Dog Funeral, believe it or not, is a highly comical piece of clowning theatre. It’s certainly not what you may expect when you sign up for it. There’s no real “story” as it were – there’s a vague under narrative but the essence is chaos. It firstly begins with a beautiful projection of the tale of the dog we are here to grieve, through drawings meant to look made by a child and simple captions summing up the image and the friendship of the girl and the dog. Until we learn of the dog’s death. This initial part is where I was inconsolable and I can only apologise to everyone in the audience that day. 

What then proceeds is a funeral farce like no other – dressed as something from Tim Burton, Zoe Wohlfeld comes in in her mourning weeds, taking up the stage and with immediate audience interaction. If you think you are safe from this, you are not. What transpires to be something of attention seeking of a young girl means we are all involved in her attempts for attention, her volatile ways and all with hilarious slapstick, contorted facial expressions and moments of sadness that are suddenly turned completely on their head, resulting in shock. Nothing is sacred and respected and this is where the hilarious shock factor comes from. In true adult clowning style, there are moments that feel a bit wrong or taboo and only elicit further laughter. Wohlfeld is a genius in being able to change the atmosphere and move her character from one scenario or feeling to another with a change in volume, intensity, narrative, all which flow effortlessly. Improv is also imperative and she is able to move with this easily, though the odd bit of slight corpsing takes place, this only adds to the comedy factor. 

We end on a beautiful note – after one hour of being repeatedly hit in the face with utter madness, we see real images of Wohlfeld and the past and present dogs in her life. When there’s a slight moment of wondering if this is satire on those who feel a lot for their animals, we realise that, yes it is, but she is also one of those people. It’s almost like she is reclaiming that opinion. In her ending speech as herself, she sells merch and notes that proceeds would be going to help a local dog charity. What is chaos and high clowning turns into something heartfelt and special. 

Dog Funeral is utter madness. Not for the faint hearted in more ways than one or the shy and introverted, this unique and intense show has the comical shock factor, but finishes on a beautiful note.