Religious references abound in Judith Thompson’s play White Biting Dog, which I saw with my pal Tricia Brioux at the Young Centre last night. The Soulpepper production was directed by Nancy Palk, mainly known as an actor and a fine one at that, making her directing debut.
Palk has an impressive ensemble of actors on this show. Mike Ross as the extremely flawed – possibly sociopathic – protagonist Cape, a lawyer on leave and living with his father after he suffers a mental breakdown. Joseph Ziegler is Cape’s terminally ill dad Glidden, his internal organs rotting inside him and covering himself with peat as if to get a head-start on his own burial. Fiona Reid is Glidden’s estranged wife Lomia, oozing sex and singularly pursuing pleasure; she is joined at Glidden’s by her punk boy toy Pascal after their apartment building burns down in an act of arson committed by a so-called drug dealer friend of theirs who they recently kicked out of their apartment. And Michaela Washburn is Pony, the child-like former paramedic who quit her job and now works at fixing things instead of people. Pony connects with Cape in a moment of synchronicity, bonded by Cape’s experience of a talking white dog stopping him from jumping off a bridge with a solution to his problems: save his father to save himself. Pony becomes Cape’s ally, then lover, assisting him with her psychic powers – and in the process, both Pony and Pascal become involved in an incredibly complex and cruel family dynamic.
The design elements are incredibly effective at shaping this world: Christina Poddubiuk’s stark grey set (she also designed the costumes) and Richard Feren’s sound design – sharp, industrial, steely. There is no question that we’re entering a harsh, modern world. There is light, too – in this case, brought to the production by Louise Guinand. We never see the talking dog that Cape speaks with, but a light that shines diagonally downwards from above as the voice echos through it. When I worked on a production of Wit at Alumnae Theatre a few years ago, we had a similar light for the end of the play, for when Vivian walks naked into the light. We called it the “God light.”
And of course, there’s Judith Thompson’s script, full of brutally lyrical language – where everything is said and nothing held back – in this journey to redemption and grace. The background notes for this Soulpepper production quote the playwright: Grace, she says, “happens through penitence, though sight. Through seeing who you are and changing things. You achieve it through humility.”
Check out this Q&A with Michaela Washburn from NOW Magazine: http://www.nowtoronto.com/stage/story.cfm?content=182231
White Biting Dog continues at Soulpepper. For more info and tickets, check out the show’s page on their website (including photos and video): http://www.soulpepper.ca/performances/11_season/white_biting_dog.aspx
life with more cowbell 
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