Dog Act: The apocalypse will not be televised, but we will sell tickets to it

Ariel Leaf and Joe Wiener (Photo by Kari Elizabeth Godfrey).

The end of the world is on everyone’s minds. Sure, it has been hanging out in the back of conscious thought for as long as humans first gained sentience and thought, “Hmm, this is nice. But it won’t last,” but the intensity of our end-of-the-world dreams has only gotten stronger.

Environmental disaster. Economic collapse. The still-lingering threat of nuclear destruction. It seems like we are a thin veneer of civilization away from becoming unwilling “Road Warrior” reenactors, fighting each other tooth and nail for the limited remaining resources.

Liz Duffy Adams’ Dog Act moves the apocalypse deep into the past. Now, the few survivors don’t even have gasoline to fight over. It’s just the remaining scattered trash of our society to pick over, and mutant rodents for dinner.

While the world is dark, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for entertainment, humor, and heartfelt emotions. The same can be said of Adams’ play, and the current production from Fortune’s Fool Theatre at the Gremlin.

In it, hope comes not from some guy who founds some letters that needed to be delivered, but from traveling vaudevillians. These company wander up and down the landscape, providing entertainment for the scattered survivors, immune from some of the degradations around them by a code that protects performers from the scavengers and cannibals that dot the land.

Even with that, our company is in dire straits. They are down to two: Zetta, the proprietor and main performer; and her loyal Dog, a man who has abandoned most of the ways of humanity to be Zetta’s loyal friend.

Their goal is to get to the coast, which – somehow – will get them to China, a long fantasied-about land where the company has a standing invitation for a command performance. In their way are two pairs of folk: Mysterious fellow travelers Vera Similitude and Jo-Jo the Bald Faced Liar; and cannibal scavengers Coke and Bud.

Vera and Jo-Jo join up for Zetta and Dog, and Vera tells of a nearby community where learning is still valued. As they trudge their way there, they are pursued by Coke and Bud, who want the youthful Jo-Jo for an important ceremony, and an even more important post-ceremony meal. As quickly as you can say “Red Kangs are best,” they are all ensnared in the adventure.

The twists of the plot are fairly easy to see, but it’s the quality of the characters and performances that gives Dog Act its heft. Ariel Leaf and Joe Wiener are convincing as our main double act. Leaf brings both grit and naïve charm to Zetta, who faces each new setback with a bright determination to find a way to a better life. Wiener matches this as the loyal Dog, who isn’t as sure about what is to come, but will stay loyal to his companion to the end.

The balance of the cast also does solid work, with Nissa Nordland Morgan’s Jo-Jo – and her shouted, emotionless storytelling that manages to be funny and scary – a particular highlight.

Director Ben Layne keeps a firm hand on the proceedings, and Ursula K. Bowden and Corrina Knepper Troth do an exemplary job with the set and props. This is dominated by Zetta’s travelling wagon, which dominates the proceedings like an end-of-the-world Mother Courage.

Dog Act runs through Nov. 22 at Gremlin Theatre.