What would you do in your last night of freedom, if you were shipping out to war the next day?
This is the question facing the three soldiers at the heart of Paskel & Paul’s 2012 musical “Dogfight”, brought to The Studio Theatre in South Hill Park Arts Centre by Three Dot Theatre, in their first ever production.
Eddie Birdlace (Kieran Usher), Boland (Keir Buist, also directing) and Bernstein (Max Field) hit San Francisco on November 21st 1963, and promptly agree to undertake a “Dogfight” challenge – a cruel game won by the man who brings the “ugliest” girl to a party.
Eddie soon meets the peace-loving but awkward and shy Rose (Anoushka Tandon Sangar), who innocently agrees to attend the dance with him. But will their burgeoning romance survive, when she learns what the evening’s really all about…?
Packing a full-cast musical onto a stage that’s fractionally bigger than your average living room is no easy task, but the crew behind this production have done a great job. A mixture of pre-recorded and live music (played off-stage) provides the foundation for the songs, which are delivered with West End gusto and enthusiasm by an exceptionally talented cast.
The set design, lighting and incidental music also do a great job of transporting the audience back to the idealistic heyday of the 60s, complete with day-glow peace slogans, Bob Dylan’s famous songs and strings of retro lights; while a creative use of stage blocks and props help to suggest the many and varied settings in which the action takes place.
There’s a hint of “make believe” to this and you’ll need your imagination to do some of the heavy lifting, but if anything it only serves to emphasise the youthful spirit of the piece and the characters. The same can be said for the costumes and hairdos – while not always of the era and sometimes more redolent of the 2020s, they do a far better job of reminding us that the characters who’re on the verge of flying out to war and dealing with the looming assassination of JFK were barely out of childhood.
And beyond the titular dogfight, it is youth – its idealism and assumptions, its innocence and corruption – that’s really what this musical is about. Why does Eddie go to war? Because it’s what his father did before him. Why does he think he’ll survive? Because he has 13 weeks of training to fall back on. You can’t help but blanch when you realise how quickly the harsh realities of war will come crashing down on the characters.
As such – and for all the grandeur and energy of the songs (and they are truly great) – the highlights here are in the quieter conversations between Eddie and Rose, and the words that go unspoken when the soldiers start to wonder what awaits them in Vietnam.
Perhaps by framing a war story around the lives that young men and women have before they ship out or say goodbye to their loved ones, the musical conveys the horrors of the battle far more effectively than “Platoon” or “Apocalypse Now”.
With strong performances from the leads and supporting characters, phenomenal musical numbers and an affecting story, this is a stellar production from an up-and-coming theatre company who’re definitely ones to watch.
“Dogfight” runs from the 1st – 4th September. Tickets can be booked at https://www.southhillpark.org.uk/events/dogfight/. Please note that the theatre doesn’t offer socially-distanced performances for this production.
