Woof is a triumph for the Sherman theatre. In Elgan Rhys’s perfectly paced two-hander, Berwyn Pearce and Aled Pedrick give devastating performances as Daf and Jesse, a 30-something couple in Wales. Under Gethin Evans’ direction, every emotion – their lust, their pain and the jealousy that ultimately leads to their downfall – is tangible.
Woof navigates the freedoms and pressures gay couples face when forming relationships that stray from the straight norm. Performed in Welsh with English surtitles, Rhys’s writing falls between poetry and prose, the natural dialogue flowing into staccato notes as the couple drink or fight. The first time Daf and Jesse have sex, it’s intoxicating; they hunt each other in Elin Steele’s neon hexagon as Sam Jones’s sound design gasps for them and Katy Morison’s exquisite lighting bathes them in rose-tinted warmth. Afterwards, they dress each other, gentle and dewy. We almost fall in love faster than they do.
Communication breaks down when they realise they want different things, with Daf quietly hoping for marriage and kids while Jesse wants the world – specifically, other men. They try an open relationship. Men from Grindr slip in and out of their lives, until jealousy becomes as potent as any of the other drugs they take.
Inevitably, under a heavy strobe and heavier beats, the tension is cracked and with it, the future of their relationship. The crucial violent climax just misses the level of intensity it needs, but it’s the aftermath that guts you. In a theatrical climate oversaturated with stories of sexual assault, few shows manage such complexity as sensitively as Woof does. We feel their tangle of fury so strongly that, in the final scene, watching these two men watch each other is agony.
Woof is at the Sherman theatre, Cardiff, until 9 February.
