The Chronicle

FUREVER FRIENDS ON SHOW

- PHIL BROWN

IT’S the highly anticipate­d Brisbane Festival show in which anything could happen. Let’s Be Friends Furever is a new work from The Good Room, a Queensland-based performanc­e collective that uses the experience­s of ordinary people to create extraordin­ary theatre works.

Ordinary people and their dogs in this case. The show, which runs until September 25 at Brisbane Powerhouse, is a daring human to canine theatre experiment. In a theatre turned dog park this groundbrea­king documentar­y explores the relationsh­ips between people and dogs – dogs such as Rollo, an 18-month-old Great Dane and Mr Peanut, a four-year-old Boston terrier.

Mr Peanut’s owner Sean Dowling describes his pet as “an influencer and a social media dog”. Rollo’s owner Peter Shea says “people just love dogs”. “The best thing about Rollo is his temperamen­t – he’s a gentle giant,” he says. That would make director Daniel Evans happy. He has taken on quite a challenge working on stage with these pooches.

“What am I doing?” Evans says. “I have never worked with more divas in my life. Do you know how hard it is to direct dogs on stage?”

 ?? Picture: Zak Simmonds ?? Mr Peanut and Rollo appear in Let's Be Friends Furever.
Picture: Zak Simmonds Mr Peanut and Rollo appear in Let's Be Friends Furever.

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