Dead Dad Dog
Finborough Theatre

JOHN McKAY’s comic, 1980’s Scottish hit was supposed to be the first of two plays on show, with the second updating and reinvigorating the theme of the original, but unfortunately Sunny Boy had to be cancelled leaving Dead Dad Dog looking rather dated.

On the morning of an important interview for a BBC executive job and a first date, Eck finds that his dad Willie has returned from the grave for no seeming purpose except to screw up his day. Unable physically to be more than a few metres apart from his father’s spectre, Eck is saddled with explaining the older man’s presence and enduring his barrage of comments, frequently out of step with his own tastes, style and sensitivities.

It is an imaginative concept for highlighting the relationship between fathers and sons, playing off the awkwardness of the situation and the clash of generations, and it is peppered with amusing lines, but many of the 35-year-old values espoused by Eck, to the incredulity of his critical shadow, now seem as old hat as his father’s.

Angus Miller gives a lively and physically amusing performance as an ambitious and fashion-conscious guy in his early 20s whose expectations literally run up against the past. His embarrassment and contrivances to explain his dad's disruptive presence while trying to chase down his own dreams makes for an entertaining scenario.

Liam Brennan as Willie creates a strong contrast to his son with a more stoical acceptance of his surprise reappearance, becoming a lugubrious spectator and commentator on his son’s world, whose attempts to assist his boy sometimes verge on the farcical.  

Set in Edinburgh, the play provides an interesting take on Scottish identity by contrasting different generations, and the regional accent gives the language an extra vitality. Nevertheless, the sense that we are watching a play of its time dulls some of the inter-generational humour.

Director Liz Carruthers does a fine job highlighting the tensions between the two men, and allows the warm memories of their shared past to gradually seep back in without any cloying sentimentality.

It is an enjoyable production but might have gained much more and been seen in a different light set along side the playwright’s contemporary play, Sunny Boy. 

Runs until October 28. Box office: finboroughtheatre.co.uk