The Heart of a Dog

Laura Hughes on this ambitious take on Bulgakov´s novel

Expats.cz Staff

Written by Expats.cz Staff Published on 01.06.2010 11:42:20 (updated on 01.06.2010) Reading time: 1 minute

Culture

‘The Heart of a Dog´, from the winners of last years Inspiration Award, is an ambitious take on Bulgakov´s novel of the same name. The story follows two doctors; one ornery and cerebral, one conscious-stricken and admonishing, carrying out animal testing in the name of medical research.

At the mercy of the inflamed ego of the older doctor, the nature of their research spins dangerously out of control. Their crazed project of implanting a dog with a human heart and pituitary gland, results in the dog developing rapidly into a human.

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Two actors play the roles of the doctors, the dog and a dog-catcher. The characters have no real dynamic, and are awkwardly at odds with one another to the point that it feels they serve no purpose being in the same play. The only apparent allure of the show is their switching characters constantly throughout the performance.

The incessant interchanging of roles does little to flesh out a sub-par script, which is painfully punctuated with long interludes of indulgent dialogue.  This easy ploy is far from sufficient to make up for the underdeveloped characters and their ultimately unsatisfactory outcome.

Perhaps the creators fell short of realizing that much of the charm of the original novel lay in its thinly veiled criticism on communism, and an adaptation without this backbone lacks substance.

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