Listen to a couple of stories from the show with music by Filipe Gomes
★★★★★ “An irreverent but profound performance” RemoteGoat
As a big fan of the Crick Crack Club’s ‘Myths Retold’ at the British Museum, I was curious to experience one of their storytelling events at the Soho Theatre. Although shorter, and in a far more intimate venue, ‘Dog Almighty’ did not disappoint. Based on Native American folklore, the performance centred around the figure of the Coyote, a wolf-like creature who seemed to be something of an ancestor to Reynard the Fox, and was masterfully inhabited and narrated by Emily Hennessey.
Over the course of an hour he emerged as a loveable rogue and irreverent trickster, who takes delight in cheap tricks yet can be mesmerised by the beauty of the world. This was a performance that wasn’t afraid to be coarse and squirm-inducing, its toilet humour only enhanced by the dissonance between a female storyteller embodying a thoroughly male protagonist.
As it progressed, however, this humour morphed into a more reflective mood, with Coyote confronting many of life’s timeless questions, such as the nature of love and loss, mortality and the divine. I left feeling moved and uplifted, glad to have spent an evening exposed to a folklore that was new to me, amidst a warm and engaged audience.
