Comedy show goes to the dogs

A comedy show all about what dogs think, The Bitches' Box gives a comical voice to our canine friends.

Actresses Emma Newborn and Amelia Dunbar say it was a show they came up with at an artists' collective, where they were paired up as total strangers.

"We didn't know each other, we sat in this room together and we came up with this," Newborn said.

"We did an improvisation of confinement, with two women in the boot of a car and then the bitches box just sprang from there. Two dogs on heat locked in the bitch box and people loved it."

The show depicts what a dog's life on the farm is like over the course of a day, through the eyes of six different dogs.

"You've got the two bitches on heat, the main characters, they normally would be out on the back blocks working with the rest of the team of dogs but because they're on heat they get locked away."

The show also looks through the eyes of two jack russells, called Jack and Russell, who act as the narrators.

There is also a house dog - "a pampered pooch" who doesn't really fit in - as well as an old pig hunting dog described by Newborn as: a real old battler.

The pair had two weeks to come up with a 10 minute show for the artist collective, and it was like going on a blind date, Dunbar said.

"We had this very entertaining couple of weeks, it started off as a bit of blind date, what are you into, you like talking animals, ok cool, you like comedy, ok this is good," Dunbar said.

After the warm response from the audience, the pair decided to turn it into a 50-minute full length show, and travelled to Dunbar's farm she grew up on in Canterbury, for city-raised Newborn to see what a working dog's life was like.

Dunbar said the show is a humanisation of dogs' behaviour, and the pair have a lot of fun together, laugh at the same stuff.

The show will be at the Hamilton Gardens Art Festival on February 14 at 6.30pm, 15 at 5pm and 9pm, and 16 at 4pm.