The Dogs Must Be Crazy

The Dogs Must Be Crazy is a sketch show conceived and directed by Mike van Graan

The original text

An 8-person, non-verbal, multi-sketch satirical piece on the expectations of “the New South Africa”, with dogs being the central characters in each sketch. The Dogs Must be Crazy consists of a series of seven sketches. Each sketch deals satirically with some aspect of the changing political scene and has dogs as the central characters, with the respective scenario viewed from their canine perspective.

The themes include:

“Watchdogs” – the importance of trade unions looking after the interests of workers
“Pavlov’s Dog” – how people who have been abused continue to behave subserviently even though they are now released
“Blind Dogs Leading the Blind” – as the masses are led to an unknown new dispensation
“Gone to the Dogs” – an ironic perspective on how ‘high culture’ lovers viewed the New South Africa treating their beloved art forms, like opera.

Productions

1991: First performed at the Community Arts Project in Woodstock, Cape Town. It had its first mainstream outing at the Standard Bank National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in July 1991. Directed by Mike van Graan. The cast included Patrick Mofokeng, Bo Petersen, Bongani Zindela, Sipho Masha. Later, it played at the Market Theatre as part of the “Hot off the Fringe” season, Aug/Sept 1991