Dog’s Case is a play that delves into the complex ethical dilemmas surrounding responsibility, memory, and grief. Set in late medieval France, a dog is put on trial for the death of its owner’s child - reflecting the period’s bizarre legal practice of holding animals accountable for their actions. Written by Miles Hitchens and directed by Charlie McGuire, this production hopes to challenge audiences, questioning the extent to which animals – and their owners – should be held responsible for tragic events. I sat down with Hitchens and McGuire to discuss their ambitions for the play, its philosophical themes, and the unique process of rehearsing online. Their production hopes to leave audiences questioning not just the ethics of blame, but the very nature of responsibility itself.

The title, originally a one-act piece performed at the Downing Festival of New Writing last year, has now been adapted into a feature-length Corpus Mainshow. Hitchens explained that the Downing extract focused on the trial of the dog, but the piece has since been reworked to add both mystery and greater philosophical intrigue to the play. By cloaking the trial itself in ambiguity, Hitchens hopes to leave it ultimately to the audience to identify the source of blame.

“Hitchens hopes to leave it ultimately to the audience to identify the source of blame”

Reworking a finished piece can often seem like a daunting task, but Hitchens says that by reshaping the play into a five-perspective narrative, which includes the viewpoints of those involved in the trial, there are more developed dimensions which deepens the audience’s ambivalence about who or what is truly at fault for the murder. This added layer prompts viewers to reflect on the complexities of human behaviour, forcing them to question whether they, too, might have acted in a similar way under the same circumstances.

Something that drew me to preview this play was that it has been rehearsed online over the break. While to most, myself included, this sounds like a nightmare – and McGuire assured me it was not easy – he explained that he has experience with rehearsing online, having done online acting at LAMDA during the pandemic. Additionally, he points out that the experience of rehearsing in Cambridge itself is less than ideal, as one cannot always rehearse as consistently as one wants on the actual stage. Online rehearsals have given him much more time to go over the “meat and bones of the text”, and allowed the actors more time to explore their characters’ motivations. McGuire says that he enjoyed having the time to speak to the actors about his vision for the play and rehearse every scene in detail – something that can often be difficult during term given time constraints. It also means that in-person rehearsals have been about just that.

“The play uses memory as an unreliable means of understanding and divulging evidence”

Some sadistic part of me was hoping for a classic writer-director showdown, but I found that Hitchens and McGuire have forged a pretty solid working relationship. Both have prior Cambridge theatre experience, something McGuire says helped their collaboration from the start. He felt “heartened” to find someone who wanted a director and who wasn’t approaching their writing in a self-centred way. In their initial conversations the pair were drawn to the play Hecuba as a point of comparison in relation to the play’s questions of how we express grief and codify humanity.

Hitchens’ piece uses memory as an unreliable means of understanding and divulging evidence through the eye-witness events and emotions of its characters. Writer and director are united in their belief that the play should remain inconclusive, emphasising that a playwright should “never produce a sermon” – a sentiment they believe Brecht might have disagreed with. Both agree that the play will leave audiences grappling with the ambiguity of grief, as well as the ethics of assigning blame to animals, whose cognitive abilities fall short of humans, yet remain under human care and control.

Dog’s Case explores the intersection of grief and responsibility, hopefully offering a compelling and thought-provoking analysis. After speaking with Hitchens and McGuire I have high expectations for both eloquent writing and a compelling stage experience. Hitchens has ambitious aims for his script, with which he hopes to shed a new light on the topic of animal ethics. I’m eager to see how it unfolds; whether it succeeds or not, it promises to be an engaging experience either way.

‘Dog’s Case’ will be showing at the Corpus Playroom from Tuesday 28 January until Saturday 1 February, at 7pm.

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