Fifteen Dogs is a novel by André Alexis, a Canadian writer. It has been adapted for radio by my drama mentor, Mike Harris. The result is a series of five, 15-minute broadcasts, which began on Monday 26 October at 10:45 GMT, and continued at the same time each day until Friday of that week.
They are available on BBC Sounds for 30 days from first broadcast, i.e. until 25 November 2020.
As I write this review, I am counting the hours until Part 5 is broadcast, and re-listening to the earlier parts.
The premise of the story is ridiculous: Olympian gods have a bet about the outcome of giving human thought and language to a pack of dogs. Like all the best stories, you can take it exactly at face value, or you can consider that the subject matter of the narrative is not what the story is actually about (a bit like the High Brow Low Brow round on Richard Osman’s House of Games).
The settling of the bet is beset by cheating, and unforeseen consequences, and goes down to the wire.
One of the things I learnt from the process of making Escape Kit is that a radio drama character does not fully come to life until they have been cast. The casting of this production is as good as it was for Escape Kit.
Zeus, who is the narrator, as well as the Supreme God, is voiced by Paterson Joseph. He is a leading Shakespearean actor, who I remember from a previous production of Marlowe’s Faustus. The way he switches, within the same character, from the detached narrator, to the Patriarch of Olympus, to the partial and fractious man who just wants a quiet life, in spite of his own impulses, is captivating.
Between Zeus, Hermes (Arty Froushan), Aphrodite (Emma Pierson), and The Fates, the play makes the Olympian pantheon sound like a family firm which is (if you’ll pardon the expression) going to the dogs.
The portrayal of the dogs is a sublime combination of acting skill and use of the medium of radio.
In every scene, every line, I wanted to know what happens next.
I found things in this production that are personal to me, that I won’t bore you with. I am sure, if you listen to it, you will find something personal to you.
Some of it is harrowing, some of it funny, some of it ironic, like life. But it isn’t life: it is entertainment, and so the boring bits have been scrupulously and skilfully missed out.
I should also say: it is quite rude. For that time of a morning on BBC Radio 4, it is quite commendably rude.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000nwmf
Cast:
Zeus ….. Paterson Joseph
Aphrodite ….. Emma Pierson
Hermes ….. Arty Froushan
Majnoun ….. David Ajoa
Atticus ….. Paul Kemp
Princess ….. Kate Chambers
Bonny and Rosie ….. Lotte Rice
Mick ….. John Hollingworth
Nira ….. Prisca Bakare
Kim ….. Christopher Buckley
Women ….. Felicity Duncan
The Fates and all other parts played by members of the cast.
Adapted for Radio by Mike Harris
Produced and Directed by Clive Brill
A Brill Production for BBC Radio 4
iamhyperlexic 