"Once again, with spare resources and splendid invention,
TheimaGen has shown that the sky’s the limit.."
Murray Bramwell.
"This is the best thing I've seen in a very long time."
Sue Oldknow.
"An ambitious story of tremendous sweep and scope,
this brilliant play lays bare the wretched idiocy at the heart of war."
Stephen Davenport.
"Dogfall is a play to see and
TheimaGen is a company to watch."
Greg Elliot.
Fringe Benefits & The Program.
"TheimaGen have delivered a high calibre production
that asks us again to question the reason for war."
Jo Norton.
[click pic to enlarge]
[click pic to enlarge]
The Sky is Falling.
1916. The Somme. Alone in their bunker Will and Jack fight to survive
the War whole. But the battle keeps shifting and the enemy changes.
And then the dogs begin to fall…
Drawing on Camus, Beckett, Ionesco, Hume and Schopenhauer,
Dogfall is a dark existential paean to the madness of war and the animal
yearning for annihilation that lies in the shadow of every man’s heart.
From the Somme to Nanking to Stalingrad and Israel, Dogfall unflinchingly
depicts the absurdity of War, a world turned upside down, where outside its
raining
cats and dogs, men behave like beasts and death is all around.
There is a unity of character and psychology in the play however there is no
unity of time. Instead, with each new scene the play jumps forward to a new war,
a fresh conflict, and an ever-increasing body count. As the Dogfall grows heavier
and heavier, Will and Jack must decide what exactly they are fighting for and what
they might lose in final victory.
The Cast:
Brendan Rock - Will
Joseph Del Re - Jack
Martin Hissey - Alousha
Writer Caleb Lewis
Director Justin McGuinness
Composer Peter Nielsen
Lighting Nic Mollison
Costume & Props Tsubi Du
Publicity Antje Guenther
Produced by TheimaGen
The World Premiere of Dogfall was on 2nd Nov 2007.
The acclaimed production from TheimaGen enjoyed outstanding reviews
from both critics and the public alike.
Proudly Supported by the:
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Directors Note:
The real power behind Dogfall is its timelessness; strangely the work feels like it was written in post-war 1950’s, but actually reflects a world that is just as relevant today.
For today’s audience the ‘war’ message has surely become more visible in our minds: we’ve seen the moves, read the books, passed the exams, and we now know that essentially war can be pointless. Yet once again we have become implicated in another futile battle, the same old con leading to the same old downfall. Despite all of the senseless warring in our history we still allow, by acceptance, the killing of others for power and ownership over faith and state. As if at the whim of some twisted addiction we drag ourselves back into the fight, to relive the mistakes of our past.
So here we stand a hundred years on from World War One, re-strapped into the hot seat of another self-perpetuating war in the Middle East. As always the enemy has been repackaged and represented so that we all follow suit, so that we reinvest in the hatred and propagate the blame game against each other.
As an artist Dogfall represents a way for me to draw attention to the downfall of mankind. As I sit in my middle class home in my safe, middle class life I can contribute to the anti-war message and say something that reflects the helplessness of us all. Ideally, we would like to stimulate thought on a subject we are privy to watching or reading about but are unable to touch or change.
Mao Tse-tung once said, “The real war is in us. History is a symptom of our disease” and for me this play is an embodiment of that truth.
Justin McGuinness
Caleb studied writing at Flinders University under playwright Verity Laughton.
In 2002 he began a yearlong mentorship with Nick Enright and began work on Nailed.
In 2003 Lewis won the IAF Literature Scholarship to research the play Krissy Pho in Vietnam
and also Naked Theatre Company’s Write Now competition for his play, RocketBaby.
In 2004 his play, Songs for the Deaf, was produced by FreshTrack Productions for the
Adelaide Fringe Festival and he began a two-year residency with Griffin Theatre Company
culminating in the world premiere of Nailed (short listed for the Phillip Parsons playwright's award)
Caleb has completed commissions for Jigsaw Theatre Company (ACT) and Riverland Youth Theatre
Company (SA) – His short film, The Half Windsor, opened in Sydney last May.
After receiving funding from the Australia Council Theatre Board and Literature Board, his play,
The Sea Bride, won the Theatrelab Emerging Playwright Award earning a two-week workshop
with playwright Edward Albee.
His
new play Dogfall premiered in Adelaide in November 2007.
Caleb is currently writing, Otzi – the story of the Iceman, for the Australian National Maritime Museum.
In 2008, Songs for the Deaf tours to Hong Kong and his latest play,
Men,
Love and the Monkeyboy opens in Sydney.