Just Like Little Dogs - Theatre

Patti Pavilion, Swansea

Fri 11 May

★★★★☆

“The Towie rules for pulling girls  (and boys)” a contemporary reference adapted to give a nod towards the Tawe, perhaps? As the life of Swansea teenagers come under the disco light of this energetic and unflinching collaboration between National Theatre Wales and Frantic Assembly.

Little Dogs is a stage adaptation of the Dylan Thomas short story Just Like Little Dogs, performed in the Patti Pavilion – a newly refurbished Victorian building across the road from Swansea’s sandy shoreline. The audience are a stone throws away from the locations in Thomas’ story.

Using the original premise, where youngsters live out their lives yearning and searching for love, strangers on the same quest, Little Dogsexplores those half formed lives, moments before teenagers cross the threshold into adulthood. As the hard boy, Jordan Bernarde explains that pulling girls is about being hard – he later repeats that litany, only to pull children’s toys from his pockets and armchair. In a separate sequence, Berwyn Pearce pulls girls knickers from his pockets.

There is one particular moment that overlaps between the old and the new narratives. A single line of Thomas story: “…where the methylated-spirit drinkers danced into the policeman’s arms and women like lumps of clothes in a pool waited, in doorways and holes in the soaking wall, for vampires or firemen…” is danced out by the cast when two policemen appear, highly unimpressed by proceedings and try to halt the girls from going any further.

Set out as a promenade piece, the audience are shuffled from corner to corner as the movement changes. Starting in a living room not out of place in 1920’s Cwmdonkin Drive, we are transported to the scene of a battered boy racer car, the desecrated toilets of a particularly seedy night club, the sandy beach, and the dirty streets in between – including an empty midnight bus stop. The cast guide us as they move to the beats of the music, diving in close and occasionally nudging along, they emerge from the audience: one minute part of us, the next part of them.

The older, grandmotherly figure of Sian Phillips may have been a ghostly, under used presence, yet it is her primarily silent presence that provides the significance. She is representative of the generational divide between teenagers and their grandparents, yet her two shining moments, comforting the lost and lonely Darren Evans with a forgotten lullaby and her striking, powerful monologue for the finale binds those two generations together – they are not so different after all: a fact Dylan Thomas could well have agreed with and we should be “humbled by the thrash of love”.

What the piece lacks in dialogue and substantial narrative, it makes up for in fantastic style, with Frantic Assembly’s unique brand of vibrant, physical theatre. It is punctuated by a soundtrack with a solid beat – reminiscent of a night out clubbing – it entrances you, grabbing at the heartstrings. Whilst these teenagers present the unrelenting, negative side to growing up, it is a gritty realism that will make you think, either of your own past, or of those teenagers out on Swansea’s infamous Wind Street living their lives and searching for that someone.

Little Dogs continues until Sat 19 May at the Patti Pavilion, Swansea. Suitable for ages 15+. Tickets: £5-15. Info:www.taliesinartscentre.co.uk / 01792 602060