A boy and his dog reunite through poetry

The International Children’s Festival of the Arts is a veritable turntable of arts and culture for the entire family.

The hospitable and relaxed festival atmosphere in downtown St. Albert along the banks of the Sturgeon River is an excellent environment to absorb new and exciting projects – especially from small, independent foreign-based troupes that challenge viewers with different and compelling styles of theatre, puppetry, dance, music, clowning and acrobatics.

One of the biggies this year is a 60-minute production from the Netherlands’ Theatergroep Kwatta, an award-winning, professional company that has developed theatre for young audiences since 2002.

Love That Dog, a show with a five-year pedigree, is now on a 10-week tour of North America. It makes a five-day appearance at the festival from May 31 to June 4.

Artistic director Josee Hussaarts discovered Newbery medal winner Sharon Creech’s children’s novel in a Dutch bookstore and immediately realized its theatrical potential.

Written in a style that is fresh and deceptively simple, Creech tells the story of Jack, a young straight-talking boy trapped by emotions from a past tragedy. Thanks to a persistent teacher, he discovers the power and delight of poetry, and the freedom to be himself.

At first Jack hates poetry. It’s for girls. Every time he takes a whack at it, his brain feels like a sieve with nothing there.

But his teacher, Ms. Stretchberry just keeps giving the class more and more poetry assignments. And there’s no way to steer clear of them.

“The teacher asks the kids to write a poem about pets and he resists,” said Agnes Bergmeijer, the actress cast as Ms. Stretchberry. Just the thought of writing about pets brings back a rush of sadness for Jack.

However, through Ms. Stretchberry’s unorthodox approaches and a progression of his poems, Jack starts to express his bottled up feelings and finds his voice.

Spoiler alert. Be forewarned. A part of the play is a tearjerker. Gradually Jack writes about his beloved dog, Sky, a mutt that was hit by a car. They were playing in the front yard. A car spattered with mud sped down the road and hit Sky. The kindly old dog simply closed his eyes and never opened them again.

“Jack learns that if you tell your story, it can bring relief and it can bring comfort. He can put his grief in the poems and put his love for the dog in them. And he learns the beauty of the spoken word,” Bergmeijer said.

Each page of Creech’s novel is written as one of Jack’s poems. To add theatrical elements to the storyline, Hussaarts uses miniatures, video screen projections, puppets and music.

“These are the tools I love to make theatre with. I try to make the poems visual and I do that with my own theatre language. I like actors playing like children. So when children see Love That Dog, I hope they have the idea that, with their own imagination, they can tell the whole story with their pets and their toys,” Hussaarts explained.

As an actress, Bergmeijer is used to wrapping her tongue around many styles of dialogue and has high praise for Creech’s poetry.

“There’s a lot of rhythm. It’s not always rhythmical, but there is rhythm. It’s a simple language but with lots of layers.”

One of this minor masterpiece’s more interesting elements is a miniature camera that projects visuals of smaller objects onto a big screen.

“When we look through the camera, it’s as if we are looking through Jack’s head. And on the screen we also see the lines of poems he creates in his mind,” Bergmeijer said.

Four actors carry the entire production. In addition to Bergmeijer as Ms. Stretchberry, there is Rogier van Erkel, as Jack and Hans Thissen doubling as an actor/musician while Servaes Nelissen operates the onstage puppets and camera.

Bergmeijer predicts there will be lots of laughs and a few tears. But in the end, Love That Dog is a story about the healing power of poetry for children dealing with grief, and she hopes it will bear fruit for discussion.

“We just want to show that you can express your feelings and emotions by writing. The play can touch you. It can inspire you. Most children who leave say they will write a poem or a play. Whatever you choose to do, you will have a good time.”