National University Theatre Society | Review by Jade Breen
Raining Cats, Dogs, and Bullets. Dogfall, a frightening scaffold for humanity.
14 May 2025
Dogfall by Caleb Lewis presents a surgical deconstruction of humanity, a disturbing and frighteningly relevant image of the conflicts that constantly surround us. With exceptional direction by Isaiah Pritchard and Jessi Gooding, the first production in the National University Theatre Society’s 2025 season is an ambitious and stunning piece. Over one hundred years, Will and Jack hold their position in a bunker fighting a never-ending war. From the Somme to Korea, Stalingrad to Israel, the two feast on tinned peas, anguished by a world where bullets rain, cats and dogs fall from the sky, and men are little more than beasts, just another body on an unavoidable pile.
Sam Odgers plays Jack. While we initially meet him as the disillusioned medic, he soon finds himself caught up in the addictive and hypnotic nature of violence. Odgers carries the work with a strong performance, heartbreaking one moment, dangerous the next. Conversely, Natasha Lyall begins as the militant and demanding Will. Throughout the show, his jacket becomes heavy with the weight of dead men’s medals, and Lyall presents a stunningly considered transition as Will becomes less assured, shaken with a heavy conscience, an undeniable blood on his hands. Belinda Lawrence plays the vulnerable Alousha, a youthful soldier trembling under the weight of a loaded pistol. Lawrence brings an innocence to the stage: unlike the seasoned soldiers, Alousha wants nothing more out of this fight than to get back home to his mother. As the cast spoon through tinned peas and sift through endless arguments, their infectious sense of empathy reaches far beyond the stage.
The work cycles through war after war, each more advanced and violent than its predecessor. Kathleen Kershaw, Tigerlily Gledhill, and Xingzi Zhang’s set design provides a brutal playground of bloodstained corrugated iron, not only making for dynamic physical movement, but a confronting and inescapable conversation. The harrowing soundscape by Paris Sharkie and Elizabeth Barnes leaves no room for complacency, the painful cries and howls of dogs dying seemed to echo in my brain.
A pivotal moment came through the scene “Ceasefire”, the word projected boldly on the set as the cast sat in silence. The moment seemed to last a lifetime, the audience sitting awkwardly, waiting for the work to resume. I could feel the discomfort, the shifting in seats, whispers of confusion, a feverish anticipation for the next moment, the next line, the next battle. Pritchard’s direction cleverly confronts us with our own painful reality, where we exist not as innocent voyeurs of conflict but direct perpetrators, addicted to the imagery of violence. The audience can barely sit still during Ceasefire; it is only when the action resumes that we find ourselves comfortable, back in the cyclical routine of war. This statement is anything but quiet, the flags of Palestine and Ukraine standing out in the patchwork of war-torn flags in the background. How can it be otherwise, when just outside the fiction of theatre we return to an endless stream of a real time genocide unfolding conveniently in the palm of our hands.
Dogfall is not subtle in its messaging and the team at NUTS should be commended for their brave and empathetic approach to such a haunting play. Never more relevant, and never more frightening, the work is not asking for you to sit back and applaud at curtain call, but rather to be uncomfortable, to learn from history, and to listen and love actively with every fibre of your humanity.
Jade Breen is a proud nonbinary creative living on Ngunnawal country. Since graduating highschool, they spend their time putting off the looming threat of adulthood by writing plays highlighting the lived experience of young people. Their debut work Happy Meals, Happy Kids made its professional debut at The Q in 2024, a brave new piece exploring the expectations of teenagers amidst a raging climate crisis. They were incredibly fortunate to be a participant in ATYP’s National Studio, developing their craft as a playwright over a week with 19 other emerging writers. Jade’s work has an urgent focus on social justice and they hope to inspire the next generations of theatre makers to continue creating challenging and intersectional work.
