Director Ajay Chowdhury talks London premiere of ‘Dog Mum’: “Accepting affection can be surprisingly difficult”

Following its success across the pond, America’s biggest South Asian theatre company brings their hit comedy to the London stage in a revamped version with new creatives and reworked characters. Guillermo Nazara chats with the show’s director about his take on the piece and how he’s managed to unleash its paw-tential.

How does it feel to be finally bringing the show to the UK stage?

It’s a real pleasure, and rather an unexpected one. I’ve been directing for more than forty years, but I’d been away from it for over a decade. Dog Mom was the play that made me want to come back. It made me laugh, then caught me off guard with how moving it was.

Bringing it to Southwark Playhouse with EnActe Arts and Riding Lights has been a joy. We’ve assembled a wonderful group of people, and I’m looking forward to the moment when an audience joins us and we discover what they respond to. Hopefully quite a lot of laughter, with the occasional suspiciously damp eye.

How did the opportunity to direct this play come about?

I’d been away from directing for more than a decade, but when Vinita Belani, the founder of EnActe (who also plays Sarita in this production and has been a friend for decades) sent me Tate Hanyok’s script, I immediately fell in love with it and made me want to return. I loved how quickly it could take me from laughing at these outrageous dogs to caring about a woman who is trying very hard to convince herself she’s fine.

The chance to explore the character of an Indian-American in her fifties made it particularly interesting. I worked with Tate and Vinita Belani, who plays Sarita, on what that change would mean. It felt like a play I could bring something to, and one I wanted to spend time with.

The show revolves around a middle-aged woman, whose plans of starting a new life she can take control of get disrupted by the arrival of a stray dog — leading to unexpected friendships and unprecedented sense of community. Is the show intended as a comment on a increasingly self-isolated society?

I think it speaks to that very strongly. You can live in a city as crowded as London and still feel terribly alone. Sarita wants to manage everything herself, which is understandable after the collapse of a marriage. The difficulty is that shutting out responsibility can also mean shutting out affection.

The dog makes her beautifully organised retreat impossible. Suddenly, there are dog parks, other owners and a neighbour who hasn’t grasped the concept of minding her own business. There’s a lot of comedy in those unwanted encounters, but they also open up her life.

I’m interested in making that experience recognisable rather than delivering a lecture about loneliness. Most of us have had a moment when we’ve insisted we’re fine on our own and secretly hoped someone might question it.

What themes have you intended to explore throughout the script and why?

Starting again is the big one. There’s an assumption that, by your fifties, you should know who you are and have your life more or less arranged. I’m in my sixties and still waiting! Sarita has a very definite idea of what her new life should look like, and the play allows that certainty to unravel.

I’m also interested in the difference between being independent and feeling you must never need anyone. Accepting affection can be surprisingly difficult, especially when it comes with responsibilities you didn’t ask for. Sarita has a neighbour Nell (superbly played by Joanna Holden) who she resists getting close to but finally realizes that she needs. Together they form a wolf pack that can look after each other.

In this production, Sarita’s South Asian background also lets us explore expectations around marriage, family, and being seen to cope. Those pressures matter, but she’s always an individual: funny, stubborn, vulnerable, and sometimes unreasonable. That’s what makes her worth spending an evening with.

Has the show been altered in any way for its upcoming London production? If so, why?

Yes. In the US production, the central character was a white American woman in her mid-thirties. Our Sarita is Indian-American and in her fifties. The story remains in Brooklyn, but starting again means something different when there’s another couple of decades of life behind you.

Tate, Vinita and I explored that together. To our surprise, the actual changes to the writing were quite small. The script already had room for the actors to bring their own experience and interpretation.

Visually, we’ve also moved away from a literal apartment. Sean Cavanagh’s brilliant set uses 56 video screens, with images that work alongside the action and leave the audience space to imagine the world beyond it. That openness is important to the way we’re telling the story.

One of the most interesting aspects of this production is its rejection of puppetry or hyper-realistic costumes to portray the dogs, resorting to the actors’ stripped-back performances instead. What are the reasons behind this approach?

I love what bargain theatre makes with an audience. You know perfectly well that you’re looking at an actor, but you recognise a movement, an enthusiasm, or that complete lack of embarrassment about wanting to be loved — and suddenly, you see the dog.

That seems much more interesting to me than trying to disguise the person. These dogs also have opinions, anxieties, and some extremely good lines. We need to be able to see the actor thinking.

Peter Brook’s Mahabharata remains one of the most extraordinary things I’ve seen. It reminded me how much an audience will imagine if you give them the right invitation. We’re asking for a little of that willingness here, albeit with rather more canine bad language.

How challenging has it been to portray the animals in this way?

The challenge is finding behaviour that you recognise without turning every moment into an impression of a dog. A particular way of listening, a sudden shift of attention, or an unembarrassed demand for affection can do a great deal. You don’t need to underline it constantly.

The dogs also have to want something in each scene. If the actor is simply being amusing, the joke will wear thin. If you understand why this creature needs to stay beside Sarita, there’s a relationship to follow. Patty Gallagher, who plays Foster, and Tom Barnes, who plays Ruben (Nell’s dog, do this beautifully.

And fortunately, between the cast and crew we have ten dogs and one cat, so there’s no shortage of opinions about what dogs do. The cat would probably prefer us to get on with something else.

What other creative challenges have you faced during the production’s development?

A big creative question has been how much to show and how much to leave to the imagination. With 56 screens, there’s obviously scope to give the audience a lot to look at. But the images need to work with the actors and give room to the story.

Sean Cavanagh’s set, Ollie Brown’s lighting and Naveen Bhatia’s sound help us create a sense of place without filling in every detail. The emotional focus still has to be Sarita and the relationships forming around her.

There’s also the balance between comedy and feeling. Tate’s writing makes those shifts beautifully, and our job is to trust it. Sometimes the best thing a director can do is resist adding something.

Are there any highlights that you’d like to flag?

The conversations between the dogs are a particular delight. They say things the humans would never dare to say, with enormous confidence in their own judgement. Anyone who has ever wondered what their dog thinks of them may wish they hadn’t asked.

Another highlight is Jarreau Antoine’s impeccable portrayal of some of the minor characters. He plays a dog shelter worker, a female jogger, an intrusive neighbour, a gay friend, an interfering old lady, a vet and, yes, a cat. The joy and humour that Jarreau brings to all these characters is well worth the price of the ticket alone.

But the moments I’m most fond of are the small changes in Sarita: when someone gets past her defences before she’s quite realised it. Those are the moments that give all the mayhem its meaning.

Why come see ‘Dog Mum’?

Because it’s funny, moving, and full of creatures (human and otherwise) who are doing their best and frequently making a mess of it. You don’t need to own a dog to recognise the wish to get your life under control, or the discovery that life has other arrangements.

If you do own one, there should be plenty that feels alarmingly familiar. I hope people leave having laughed a great deal, perhaps shed a tear, and feeling a little more open to the people around them. I also suspect a few dogs will receive an extra cuddle that evening.

Dog Mum plays at London’s Southwark Playhouse from 14 October to 7 November. Tickets are available on the following link.

By Guillermo Nazara