Seeing With My Dog by Rod Dungate

Seeing With My Dog feature series. 

ReviewsGate founder editor, Roderick Dungate, award-winning poet and playwright, has a play of his own going into production in March for performances in April 2026.  The play is partly auto-biographical and extends from his experiences of recently losing his sight.  Roderick will write a series of features outlining his dynamic play’s growth.  Here is the first.

Seeing With My Dog is an unusual play.  It’s about guide dogs, sight loss, love, death, loss of confidence yet it’s hilarious.  At least that’s my aim.  And as if that’s not enough I’ve written it in dynamic verse forms. It’s wild too; there are four actors , they all play people – nothing unusual about that.  But they all play dogs too – specially when the dogs have Zoom conferences; they need to discuss modern working conditions and the threats of developments in AI.

We’ve put together a fantastic cast and team of creatives.  In a couple of days we’ll be  bringing them all together to read through the play for the first time.  I’ve been working on the project , one way or another, for a couple of years.  In fact, it started life as a series of connected poems – a diary I kept recording on first contact with the Guide Dog charity, getting on their list, and training and working with a guide dog.  The performance script has travelled through several version.  The read through will be the first time I’ve heard the script aloud.

A script is a blueprint; many other artists collaborate to bring it into performance.  This one is really tricky.  For instance, will the way I collide verse forms work?  Will the juxtaposition of verse and prose bring out the meanings I want.  I’ve even given the protagonist, Oliver, soliloquys – will this work with a modern audience?  It’s Oliver who loses his sight and learns to work with a guide DOG.  He works through his crises of confidence in the soliloquys.

Co-director, Joe Harmston, says: ‘The play’s irreverent.  Typical Dungate.  Quirky.  The actors and the rest of us will have great fun, as well as having to work hard.  There are great challenges; we’ll all be on learning curves.’

I’ve always had an irrepressible humour.  Often making jokes at the wrong time.  Oliver has this issue to deal with too.  Just today I thought of an early joke moment, perhaps my earliest self-made joke moment.  I must have been around 5 and it had been snowing.  Snow was sliding from house rooves with a loud swoosh.  I said: ‘The houses are sneezing.’  My mum told me not to be so silly.  I remember, at the time, I thought it rather a good joke.  Still do.  I guess I’ve seen no reason to change my style since.

But in my Seeing With My Dog, a serious play about serious issues, will my humour work?  And if my humour works, will the Kleenex moments work too? 

All joking apart (oh yeeah?) I’m more nervous about this play than any of my others.  The read-through will be a good first test.   The proof of the pie, as they say …