WOOF: Actors Hugo McGuinness (left), Suzan Anderson and (right) Susan Partington can’t help but laugh during rehearsals at Tirzah Russell’s performance as a dog in Evolution Theatre Company’s upcoming production of AR Gurney’s comedy, Sylvia. Picture supplied
A dog found in the park and taken home is the premise of AR Gurney’s 1995 play, Sylvia. Some US producers initiallly felt the play lacked promise because “it equated a dog with a woman, and to ask a woman to play a dog was not just misogynist, but blatantly
sexist”, Gurney once said.
Yet rehearsals for Evolution Theatre Company’s production of the comedy are barely underway and young actor Tirzah Russell as Sylvia has already proven to be “pee your pants funny”, says director Dinna Myers. By the end of the second act most of the cast is in tears, including Hugo McGuinness who plays Greg, the man who found Sylvia in the first place.
Greg’s wife Kate (played by Suzan Anderson) is not happy about the idea of bringing a stray dog into their lives but the couple eventually agree Sylvia can stay for a few days before they decide whether she can stay longer. Greg spends more and more time with Sylvia and tension increases between Greg and Kate.
What underlines the tension is the fact that on stage Sylvia doesn’t look like a dog. She displays some dog behaviours but walks upright like a human and her costumes are regular clothes. In a sense, Sylvia is a metaphor for ‘the other woman’, says Russell.
“I’m a bit too dog to be fully human. At the same time my character is too human to be a dog. It’s a lot of fun, specially because I’m a real dog lover. We started with the dog idea but as we went along she got more human, but then I got a note from Dinna to get more dog in there. My character is between a human and a dog.”
