Perth Voice Interactive

COMICBOOK seller by day, bitch by night.

Alison Arrowsmith will swap Wonder-Woman for a labradoodle when she dresses as a dog in the stage show Mutts.

Arrowsmith works at Quality Comics in the CBD but will play “Peppa”, a posh pooch from the swanky end of town.

“She’s usually calm and collected but is ready to defend herself, or others close to her, should the need arise,” Arrowsmith says.

“The challenge is bringing to life a character that looks down on others yet can identify with them while adding in the necessary dog characteristics to make Peppa believable as a dog.”

Mutts, written by Johnny Grim, is the poignant tale of how nine mongrels end up in the pound together.

Director Jane Sherwood encouraged her cast to spend as much time as possible observing dogs and also had pooches at rehearsals.

“As a group, we also spend time discussing how our own dogs react in different circumstances,” she says.

“We’re all having a wonderful time bringing the dogs to life with rehearsals full of barks, tail-chasing and sniffing.”

Sherwood adds she fell in love with the Mutts script on the first reading.

“John writes wonderful dialogue and in this script he has created a series of characters that, despite the fact they’re dogs, are easy to relate to.

“Their stories have so many parallels to what us humans go through at various stages of our lives.”

Arrowsmith has previously appeared in several short films but Mutts is her first stage production.

“Mutts appealed because I liked the idea of being a dog and showing how they can end up in the pound,” she says.

Mutts is showing at the Latvian Centre Theatre in Belmont.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK