My overall impression
It is only once in a while that a play is produced which allows its audience to reflect on its own lifetime of missed opportunities. Dead Dog’s Bone serves as a vibrant example of a riveting roller coaster ride that explores life’s briefest yet most significant moments of love and kinship in a fast-paced episodic rhythm. Written by UC Santa Cruz graduate Veronica Tjioe and directed by fellow alumni Rosie Glenn-Lambert, the play chronicles the final year of Juniper’s family dog as it slowly makes its way to the grave. This is a play for all of us who have lost something special that we just cannot seem to let go of. Dead Dog’s Bone touches us where we are most in need of affection and invites us in to take life as it comes one moment at a time. It never once forgets the brighter times surrounded by friends, family, and dogs. For anyone who has had difficulty growing up, and for anyone who has left a piece of themselves behind that they should have taken with them throughout life, this play simultaneously allows you to revisit your past while at the same time giving you the courage to look towards the future and smile.
With a cast as refreshing and stimulating such as this, Dead Dog’s Bone presents a powerful luring chemistry between its characters that pulls each of us inwards to explore our own relationships with each other as it guides us in finding our own way back home and holding on to the love that we still have today. As befits the plot, it asks that we start measuring our lives in dog years, living each day, hour, and minute to our fullest desires before it ends, because as we all know, there is no cure for lost time. For anyone still dwelling on those wasted moments, this play is for you; for anyone unable to commit to your lover, this play is for you; and for anyone looking for a new place to call home in that oh so familiar state of loss and befuddlement, this play is for you.
