- Feel Good
- 9th May 2025
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- 0 minute
This brilliant new play at Live Theatre takes on consent from a female perspective…
“It’s really important to us that Dogs On The Metro does not make villains out of alienated young men but instead honours the perspectives of the young women who can often become collateral damage in others’ sexual exploration."
– Emile Robson
While Adolescence is currently being referenced in Parliament and brought to schools around the country for its study of nascent male violence, one voice that remains noticeably silent in that depiction is that of the young woman herself.
Live Theatre’s upcoming production of Dogs On The Metro may not be about murder, but it takes an unflinching look at gender attitudes and consent from a distinctly female perspective.
The inaugural winner of the North East Playwriting Award, the play observes young friends Jen, played by Sarah Balfour and Dean played by Dean Logan, as they ride the Metro together, people watching and taking part in a series of seemingly harmless games of ‘would you rather?’.
But as the narrative unfolds, it becomes clear that they have very different perspectives on an event that took place between them years earlier at a party. As the Metro thunders through the city, we learn, piece by piece, not only about what happened, but, crucially, how it felt for the woman involved and what it ultimately meant.
With Dean continually reframing and downplaying the significance of what took place, Jen has to fight to ensure that the truth of her experience is heard and the meaning of it fully understood.
Award-winning writer Emile Robson said of her play: “Despite being largely set in the late noughties, it’s remarkable how current and relevant the themes of Dogs on the Metro are. It’s evident that kids then and kids now can lack the necessary language and compassion to relate to the opposite sex and properly communicate with each other. It’s really important to us that Dogs On The Metro does not make villains out of alienated young men but instead honours the perspectives of the young women who can often become collateral damage in other’s sexual exploration.”
The play’s director Maria Crocker added: “I love making theatre because it can thrust audiences right into the middle of something. It can create space for difficult conversations, it can illuminate voices that are sometimes overlooked, and can allow us to look at the world through a different lens. Dogs On The Metro does all three.”
A gripping portrait of young lives, Dogs On The Metro plays at Live Theatre from Thursday 1 May to Saturday 17 May 2025 with tickets priced from £11 to £26.
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