Innovative, clever, and refreshing - imitating the dog's War of the Worlds review
From the 18th February- 21st February, imitating the dog are performing War of the Worlds at The Dukes, before moving on to tour the UK.
From the 18th February- 21st February, imitating the dog are performing their show War of the Worlds at The Dukes, before moving on to tour the UK. SCAN’s Grace Crossley was invited to opening night. Read more to see what she thought of the worldbuilding, the Martians, and innovative uses of technology onstage.
Written and co-directed by Peter Brooks and Andrew Quick, the adaptation follows our protagonist Will Travers (Gareth Cassidy), as he wakes up in a hospital a week after an alien invasion from Martians to find London in ruins. The show is split into two fifty-minute acts with a twenty-minute interval; the first act establishing the worldbuilding and allowing us to become acquainted with Will, and the second detailing the various encounters he has and the consequences of Martians being on Earth.
The most striking part of the performance was the incorporation of technology as a way to modernise the original text. The audience is watching a film being created right before their eyes as Will is the main focus, with the rest of the cast (Bonnie Baddoo, Morgan Bailey, and Amy Dunn) all holding cameras to film him.
The cast utilises props and screens as a way to depict this dystopian environment, with around 1,200 shots being taken overall. The stage has two large screens and two smaller ones on each side of the stage, and a projector screen is at the top. This means the audience watches the film live on the projector screen whilst it’s being made directly below.
In the programme for the production, the director’s note details that ‘we could use the cinematic to stage some of the epic moments in the novel and it allowed us to present the Martian presence through the lens of shock and inference, through partial showing and tense-making revelation’. This definitely proved effective, with the audience witnessing attacks from giant Martian Tripods through the use of camera angles and props, portraying them as a threatening presence despite the fact we never truly see them.
The story was thought-provoking and very politically relevant, having been modernised to take place in 1968 London. It incorporates Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, even using audio and video snippets of it throughout the show during flashbacks from Will’s memories. The racial commentary throughout felt very reflective of the current state of the world, providing a critical exploration about anti-immigrant rhetoric and utilising the Martians as a metaphor for immigrants today.
Its sudden ending leaves the audience with a feeling of bleakness, allowing for reflection on the hateful rhetoric that’s gaining popularity across the world. It explores the hypocrisy of these ideologies by placing a racist character in a position where he needs to flee his country to get to safety, essentially holding a mirror up to the world to challenge this hate and evoking empathy for the victims of it.
imitating the dog’s production of War of the Worlds will be performed at The Dukes in Lancaster from 18th-21st February. Tickets are available on The Dukes’ website. Interested in learning more about imitating the dog? Check out Grace’s interview with Andrew Quick here.