For Ōtautahi Christchurch-born Jonathan Price, acting had always been a passion. After finishing study at Victoria University Wellington and the John Bolton Theatre School in 2014, Jonathan found his way into directing as a part of his work for Toi Whakaari NZ Drama School.
It wasn't until Barney Olson, the creator of A Traveller's Guide to Turkish Dogs, brought his script to him that Jonathan leapt to direct a show outside an educational framework.
The mixture of mythic and domestic, every-day human joys and challenges interrupted by something greater, more ancient, more expansive. That’s what drew me to the project. And, you know, I love dogs.
Jonathan also loves chaos, which probably makes sense if you recognise his name from work with A Slightly Isolated Dog (Safety in Numbers, Don Juan). After reading the script, he wanted to introduce some theatrical madness to the show. According to Jonathan, it helped to weave the fantastical elements with physical playing and shook up the narrative.
He then called together a cast of talented shapeshifters he thought were perfect for the project, and from there, everything began to fall into place. The show was set to start its tour in 2020 and was nearly ready to hit the road when all of a sudden, COVID struck.
Cancelled tours, massive financial strain, a lot of staring into the void and a lot of very hard mahi from committed practitioners. Special thanks here to Eleanor from A Mulled Whine who has chaperoned this show through the hard times.
In the end, the show's spirit was strong, and the elements were all in place, so fate couldn't hold the team back for too long.
It’s important to me that, when we’re in a theatre, we acknowledge that we’re all humans with beating hearts and wild minds all sitting in the same room together. When you do that, you get a license to play pretend, to work with metaphor and visual poetry. That’s what we’ve tried to do with Turkish Dogs.
A Travellers Guide to Turkish dogs provides a way to disconnect from the doomsday narrative's big picture. Jonathan hopes people will feel something mythic and heroic in the small acts of compassion that inspired the story of A Traveller's Guide to Turkish Dogs.
