Spencer Jones's new show Dogs, at Pleasance Dome in Edinburgh, is a hymn to the canine-human relationship that culminates in a message about social cohesion in acrimonious times. Unlike Ricky Gervais's cynical cats, Jones's dogs are optimistic, and the prop-comic delivers a performance that couldn't be sweeter.
The show is a grab-bag, circling seemingly at random between character comedy in papier-mache heads, loop-pedal nonsense, and dopey dog-walking business with an animatronic mutt. Not all of it is dog-related, yet it adds up to something winning as Jones leads his four-legged friends toward a closing message about how our pets can help us connect.
A gleeful anthropology of dog owners
It begins as a chat with the audience about their animals, with Jones poshing it up in character as a snobby dog-walker. One strand of the show, taking as its motto the question “Aren't humans weird?”, functions as a gleeful anthropology of dog owners. They carry bags of poo by their sides, lose control of their hounds, and in that panic reveal their true selves. Their armoury includes something resembling a ladle, cueing a very funny sequence in which Jones, in horsey false teeth, samples soup supposedly cooked by his audience.
And crucially, they talk to one another – which might just save us, says Jones, in a homily bolted on to the end of his show. Coming from this performer, who radiates innocent idealism even at 50, you might even believe it.
Celebrating the inner child
If not, there's still the pleasure of an hour spent celebrating the inner child and spirit of play in all of us. Highlights here, as Jones bounds way beyond the limits of his theme, include the tale of a brutal parental separation as seen through the eyes of an unwitting kid, and a chat between two blokes competing to suspend the most ash from the end of their ciggies.
There are arguably too many instances when Jones displays then abandons an idea (“I haven't got any material for that …”) rather than develops it. That, finally, is part of the bricolage appeal of this very charming hour, a scrapbook full of wonky images of dogs, their owners and much else besides. At Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh, until 30 August.
