Everyman & His Dog

‘Everyman & His Dog’ was inspired, somewhat obviously, by the expression itself which, like most idiomatic expressions, can be contracted to just one word: Everyone.

Within human societies, dogs are ubiquitous. If one sees a dog in the street, chances are it’s attached in some way to a human being. The strength and depth of bonds between dogs and their human companions is the stuff of legend and yet, more often than not, at any one point in time, each can only begin to guess what the other is thinking.

Dogs communicate chiefly through smell and, to a degree, sound, whereas humans communicate primarily through words and, to a degree, sight – which means that we experience the world in vastly different ways. Each of us, therefore, to a greater or lesser extent, is the prisoner of our sensory limitations which, if we’re to survive in this world, we must strive to overcome.

In ‘Everyman & His Dog’, John Everyman, a retired GP, has been gifted a dog by his daughter. As a youngster, having been terrorised by a neighbour’s unruly canine, he considers the gift an unwelcome intrusion into an otherwise routine and ordered life. But the dog is there now and, as much as John tries, can’t be ignored. The demands of ‘owning’ a dog lead John’s life in directions he had not anticipated, stirring thoughts and feelings that run counter to his lifelong tendency to let sleeping dogs lie.

In a compellingly human monologue that contemplates themes of love, connectedness, ageing, loss and death, and that ranges from almost slapstick humour through to profound pathos, this gentle yet deeply moving meditation on the meaning of life and love will send audiences out into the night with a sense of having journeyed to the heart of what it is to be human.