Theatre review:Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs)

Much of Sean Holmes' last season at the Lyric Hammersmith has been about revisiting notable moments from his time as Artistic Director, and for the finale (the upcoming Noises Off revival appears to be something of a filler show between regimes) he brings back Kneehigh, a company who've had a couple of residencies at the theatre during Holmes' time there. They're also, of course, a company I've tended not to get along with, but it's been a couple of years under new management so it's got to be worth a fresh look. And while Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs) has much of the trademark inventive chaos, it's probably safe to say that Emma Rice took her whimsy gun with her when she left. John Gay's The Beggar's Opera has been an endless source material for adaptation and reinterpretation over the centuries, and in Carl Grose (writer) and Charles Hazlewood's (music) hands it becomes an anarchist rock/ska Punch and Judy show.

Here Macheath (Dominic Marsh) becomes an assassin-for-hire so effective and shadowy nobody seems sure whether he actually exists or is just a legend.

He's real enough though, and at the top of the show he kills the mayor (and his dog,) on the orders of corrupt local businessman Les Peachum (Martin Hyder,) who wants to take over the town himself. But when Macheath secretly marries Peachum's daughter Polly (Angela Hardie) he becomes a liability, and the new mayor reinstates the death penalty and puts a bounty on his head. Hazlewood's songs are mostly rocky although there's nods to a couple of other genres like ska and country; it's an uneven evening, with a couple of standout numbers including a love song to money.

As a show it's just about coherent: As well as the main plot there's a recurring farcical element as there's confusion around the three identical suitcases owned by Widow Goodman (Patrycja Kujawska,) one of which of course contains a dead dog. The essential darkness of the story is tempered with some good gags, and there's a chaotic energy to the performances, with entertaining turns from Rina Fatania as Peachum's wife and brains of the operation, Beverly Rudd as another of Macheath's romantic interests - who also happens to be the Chief of Police's daughter - and Georgia Frost as a variety of urchins and crooks. As well as the bare bones of The Beggar's Opera, the play incorporates puppets, with many of the characters finding analogues in the archetypes of Punch and Judy: So Peachum is the Crocodile, Chief Lockit (Giles King) the Policeman, Polly is Pretty Polly and Toby the Dog is Toby the Dog.

Marsh is handsome and charming enough that his Mr Punch-like Macheath feels genuinely dangerous: He may keep openly admitting that he's bad but this comes across as rogueish charm, so the regular reminders of just how dark a character he really is continue to be a jolt. It makes him a disconcerting figure because he feels like someone who could continue to fool you into trusting him however many times he proved you shouldn't. But it's part of the ever-present underlying anger of Mike Shepherd's production that the anti-hero still comes across as nowhere near as bad as the society he lives in, and the piece remains a brutal critique of corruption and capitalism.

Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs) feels longer than it needs to be, and I found it too chaotic and unstructured. Of course this is a criticism that feels like missing the whole point, as it builds to a truly memorable and spectacular finale: Michael Vale's multilevel design has made the show visually bold and striking all evening, but really comes into its own for a nightmarish conclusion when anarchy seems to be the only way of beating despair. It didn't always hold my attention but Grose and Hazlewood's musical definitely has some shining moments and a kind of bleak beauty.

Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs) by Carl Grose and Charles Hazlewood, based on The Beggar's Opera by John Gay, is booking until the 15th of June at the Lyric Hammersmith.

Running time: 2 hours 35 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Steve Tanner.