{"id":846732,"date":"2026-06-05T18:37:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T18:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/846732\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T18:37:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T18:37:27","slug":"two-couples-bare-their-teeth-in-a-dogs-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/846732\/","title":{"rendered":"Two couples bare their teeth in A Dog’s House"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you spend any time on social media, you may have seen a meme involving a photo or video of a dog (usually a large breed, like a pit bull or Rottweiler) and a caption saying something like, \u201cMy dog bit my boyfriend and I had to put him down. I\u2019ll really miss him\u201d\u2014followed by a video of the person hauling out a people-size body bag.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Dog\u2019s House<\/strong>
Through 6\/14: Thu\u2013Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2:30 PM; Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln, 773-404-7336, egodeaththeatrecollective.org<\/a> or greenhousetheater.org<\/a>, $27<\/p>\n

The choice between our dogs and our romances is the plot device animating Micah Schraft\u2019s 2015 play, A Dog\u2019s House, now in a local premiere with Ego Death Theatre Collective under Carol Kelleher\u2019s direction. But as T.S. Eliot observed, \u201cPlot is the bone you throw the dog while you go in and rob the house.\u201d The problems facing the two couples at the center of Schraft\u2019s play may be ignited by a dog fight. But as this taut (if occasionally manipulative) 90-minute show makes clear, both couples left their psychic houses wide open for plunder through emotional neglect, failure to communicate, and plain old loss of passion.<\/p>\n

As the play begins, Michael (Jack Hradecky) is standing in the living room of the home he shares with Eden (Kaitlyn Gorman). Michael\u2019s T-shirt and hands are covered with blood, and he\u2019s holding a small dog harness. Turns out that their Rottweiler, Jock, has just mauled the neighbors\u2019 toy poodle to death. In a panic, Jack brought the mangled body of Phoenix home to hide it until they can figure out how to break the news to owners Nicole (Hattie Hodes) and Bill (James Lewis). From there, a series of lies and revelations build to a perhaps predictable but still grim conclusion.<\/p>\n

Michael and Eden go along with the fiction that Phoenix has just run away, even taking flyers from Nicole to hang up around town. (The fact that Michael and Eden are new to the neighborhood adds to the tension.) But Eden also invites the couple over for a dinner party where it quickly becomes clear that she and Michael aren\u2019t the only ones having a hard time in their relationship. Bill and Nicole are struggling to conceive a child, and Bill\u2019s harsh (if honest) assessments of their marriage seem rooted at least in part in his disappointments about that situation. His need for control\u2014he works at an immigration detention facility\u2014spills over into a friendly offer to help train Jock, which also doesn\u2019t go well.<\/p>\n

If Bill is the alpha dog in his house, Eden seems to run command central in her relationship with Michael. Schraft\u2019s script, in my view, runs a little close to stereotypes of ball-busting professional women in his imagining of Eden, but Gorman\u2019s performance also shows the despair many women can feel at always being the permanent mom in their men\u2019s lives. Hradecky as Michael also threads the needle between his desire to be seen as a good person and his habits of passive-aggressive avoidance that spark Eden\u2019s frustration. (Nathan Stark\u2019s clever set design incorporates wire walls surrounding Eden and Michael\u2019s living room, suggesting that they\u2019re in a cage every bit as much as Jock.)<\/p>\n

The comic star here is Lewis, whose rough edges and painfully on-point observations wring a lot of mordant laughs out of the material. (At one point, he invokes the story of Helen Keller as an analogy for dog training, complete with an over-the-top impersonation of Patty Duke\u2019s Keller from The Miracle Worker.)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a discomfiting play, but under Kelleher\u2019s hand, it\u2019s mostly an absorbing experience, even if you can see what the inevitable outcome will be. And though I doubt this disclaimer is necessary: No actual dogs are harmed in this production, as no real pooches appear in this show. The real dog fight involves the humans.<\/p>\n

Reader Recommends: THEATER & DANCE<\/p>\n

Reader reviews of Chicago theater, dance, comedy, and performance arts.<\/p>\n

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