The Dressing Room at the Dog and Trumpet

There is already in existence an ample and impressive collection of plays about theatre, from the inside. Sadly, local playwright Annie Cossins play ‘The Dressing Room at the Dog and Trumpet’, currently playing at Darlinghurst’s Tap Gallery, adds little to this genre.

Cossins contemporary play is set in the dressing room of an inner city pub called ‘The Dog and Trumpet’. The play follows a small group of actors through the course of an opening night performance from their pre show preparations and warm-ups all the way through to the cast saying their farewells at the end of the night.

By way of background, Cossins based the play on her experiences when she was performing in a production of Christopher Durang’s New York comedy ‘Beyond Therapy’ at Balmain’s Cat and Fiddle theatre in 2004. In fact, she started writing the play in the dressing shows during the run. Her characters were loosely based on the actors she was working with.

This all sounds like a great springboard for an interesting play, however I found the end product, flat and disappointing. To use a phrase, it certainly seemed to be the case of something being lost in translation. Whatever inspired and stimulated Cossins back in 2004 just didn’t hold up in the play.

The audience was left with a play that had mediocre direction from Emily Weare, lacked a genuine dramatic situation, and included a group of characters who weren’t that interesting. It wasn’t that exciting to spend just under an hour and a half with a guy with a punky hairdo, a wannabe writer, a guy who can’t get laid, and a prima donna.