Text version: (for actual scan see below) Have you Seen a Dog Written and directed by Joanne Foley & Penelope Brown Performed by Joanne Foley Reviewed by Richard Hart in Australian Puppeteer This production sat very nicely in the whole festival experience. It was charming, intimate and witty with a deceptively simple presentation. By this I mean the simplicity was no doubt distilled from much experience and a sophisticated approach. The audience first encounters a small to medium size booth covered in a roll of artificial grass which spilled out onto the floor for about a metre or so. An interesting image, especially in connection with dogs. Joanne, who performs the piece solo, enters the audience from behind, chasing a dog we haven’t seen yet. The dog is alleged to have stolen her shoe. This was a very good opening greatly enhanced by her commanding and entertaining engagement with the audience. There are a few excursions into the audience and front of stage during the show which mostly work very well and also expands the show beyond the small stage booth. There are two clearly defined worlds in this show, the one where we are, the audience, and the other inside the booth. Access to and from is through the back of the booth. Joanne leads us into the booth world chasing the unseen dog, the middle of the stage opens to reveal a small blacktheatre stage and Joanne’s hands groping in the darkness. We then get the impression she has fallen further into this world vial her use of voice and hands. She has gone somewhere for a large part of the show, replaced by a range of dogs, dog owners and their world. I particularly enjoyed the way this world was created. Several entire characters were clearly expressed through a pair of appropriate shoes, Joanne’s voice characterisation plus the positioning and gesture of her hands. It was wonderful and rounded off with some beautiful rod puppet dogs whose legs moved via a wheel lurking underneath their torsos. Dogs and owners were very well matched, adding a lot of humour and it was particularly clever to define humans as feet, hands and voice only as this is probably the say dogs mostly experience us, this world according to dog.Yes, it all mostly worked out for me. I had no trouble accepting this style. It not only created more humour but also liberated the puppeteer to do more with less. Joanne’s vocal characterisation was excellent and clearly differentiated between characters aided by entertaining dialogue. This is a very new production which will no doubt tighten up very quickly with a bit more performing. It seemed to only suffer from some overlong pauses during changes inside the stage, no doubt due to its youth. The lost dog that stole Joanne’s shoe at the start of the show first appears to us in the booth word and is the thread that holds the narrative together. By the conclusion, Joanne has caught up with the lost dog and the dog finds a home with a boy character in the booth, and all is resolved. The simple resolved narrative works for the primary age group, while the politics between the characters are also engaging to an older audience. Well done, one of the festival highlights.