Stage

What: Fifteen Dogs
Where: CAA Theatre, 651 Yonge St.
When: Now, until Sun., Feb. 16
Highlight: New staging and a quippier script tighten already successful show
Rating: NNNNN (out of 5)
Why you should go: A highly amusing and pensive exploration of life and death

TWO GODS WALK along King Street … no this isn’t the start of a bad joke but a cosmically epic bet between Hermes and Apollo.

Fifteen Dogs is back and better than ever. After their premiere at Crow’s Theatre in 2023 and a short stint at Montreal’s Segal Centre in 2024, this Torontonian adaptation is at home again … with a few changes.

Based on the novel by André Alexis, the story follows 15 dogs who are plagued with “crippling self-consciousness,” or human intelligence, by the gods Apollo and Hermes. The two godly brothers have a bet: with human intelligence, not one of these dogs will be happy at the time of their death. And so, the dogs with newly found thoughts begin pondering the philosophy of treats, creating their own language and trying to figure out how to live in a strange new world (a.k.a. High Park, which they have chosen as their home base).

Adaptor and director Marie Farsi builds a delightfully complex story filled with copious dog puns and gut-wrenching realizations about love, death and happiness. Moving from a staging in-the-round at Crow’s Guolien Theatre to the proscenium CAA stage could have risked a loss of dynamism for actors, but it seems to only add fuel to the fire. Each moment on stage is delightfully alive and detailed, thanks to Farsi’s direction. Her story takes from Greek tragedy, having a chorus narrate the story to the audience and fill in as the many, many dogs. I’m admittedly unbiased, as a Greek theatre enthusiast; this structure works well to hold the audience’s hand along this epic tale.

The six-person cast (Dan Chameroy, Laura Condlln, Stephen Jackman-Torkoff, Tom Rooney, Tyrone Savage, Mirabella Sundar Singh) give it their all as rambunctious pups, bounding with the kind of energy you really only find at a dog park. Each plays several characters, from teacup pups to Greek gods to regular old humans. The transformations from character to character are one of the most stellar parts of this production. Yes, they are aided with a flourish by costume designer Julie Fox (also set and prop designer — more on that later) through wigs, clothing items and even a dazzling cape to help distinguish different personas. But really, it is the actors’ performances that drive their transformations home — modifying vocal tone and movement quality to completely embody their different characters.

Laura Condlln and Tom Rooney give stand-out performances as one of the last surviving dogs, Majnoun (Rooney), and the scattered but every-friendly human that adopts him, Nira (Condlln). They both ground this production with gorgeous performances that make you question the nature of connection. Rooney is as introspective as King Lear, and his soliloquies to the audience are as impactful as the maddening king. I also can’t help but thank Farsi for bringing us a fabulous Zeus, played by Torkoff, accentuated by a golden robe that sparkles in the lighting by Imogen Wilson throughout the stage.

Fox’s set and props include but are not limited to a table of miniature dogs, telephone wires strung back and forth by the stage and a deep blue dusk background. There are piles of trash here and there strung along the park scene created and, of course, some Toronto street signs. It’s delightful to have such a specifically Toronto production in our backyard, something that perhaps To. Theatre should have more of.

There are about 20 minutes shaved off this production, as opposed to its premiere two years ago, and it works. It’s a super tight show at two hours and 20 minutes — every second is worth the audience’s time. While this show is objectively hilarious, with humans rolling around like dogs and even peeing on a fire hydrant, it has a meaty tender centre. Consciousness, love and happiness are all on the chopping block in this play, and it has a satisfying conclusion that really reminds you of the power of live theatre. You’ve only got a couple of dog days in your life, and I assure you a trip to see this show is well worth your time.