The Fourth Dog
WELCOME to our first audio play! Please click on the play button below to listen to The Fourth Dog.
Three stories, three generations, three toilets. Set on the day of a big family wedding, ‘The Fourth Dog’ is a comedy about heredity, identity and love.
Feedback from one of our listeners: “Thanks! What a treat. I laughed! I cried! I was surprised! Lovely story, great performances and super production.” Ali Woozley
Prefer to download? The Fourth Dog
It’s The Big Day, but things aren’t quite going to plan. Katie’s realised she can’t just ‘wing it’, Alice can’t face playing Mother of The Bride, Deedee can’t bear being on the edge and Valda can’t get out of her wheelchair without the help of her husband, Peter, who just can’t help himself. Then there’s Andy, who’s beginning to think he ‘just can’t’….
Credits:
Written by Zena Forster
Starring Sophie Thompson, Kate Best, Pavel Douglas, Wendy Brierley, Oliver Langdon and Caroline Garland
Directed and Produced by Emma London and Clare Reddaway
Recorded by James Creighton
Design by Annette Chown
- Sophie Thompson and Kate Best, playing Deedee and Alice
- Pavel Douglas and Wendy Brierley, playing Peter and Valda
- Wendy Brierley as Valda being wheeled by Pavel Douglas as Peter
- Clare Reddaway. Thinking….
- Discussing the final scene…
- Wendy Brierley as Valda
- Zena Forster, writer of The Fourth Dog
- Emma London, Sophie Thompson and Kate Best
All photographs copyright Kitty Wheeler Shaw. Kitty can be contacted on Facebook here or via her website.
A word from the writer:
Zena tells us: “I’m delighted that The Fourth Dog has been chosen to launch this exciting new project. Although I have done some adaptations, this will be my first original piece for radio so you can imagine how thrilled I am. After talking to A Word In Your Ear, I feel confident that my play is in safe hands – they laughed, they cried, they were surprised, and in nearly all the right places too!”
A Word In Your Ear would like to thank Burdall’s Yard, Bath, and Bath and North East Somerset Council for their help in the making of this production.
Thanks! What a treat. I laughed! I cried! I was surprised! Lovely story, great performances and super production.
So glad you liked it Ali! Lovely response! Thank you! Clare Reddaway
I loved it! thank you and well done to everyone involved, a great first production, really entertaining. Can’t wait for the next one!
Thanks Sarah!
If you haven’t listened to this yet, do it right now. Funny, touching and witty, so well written and produced. A feast for the ears!
Glad you enjoyed it Lisa!
A great listen, wonderfully evoking the intimacy of the characters’ hopes and fears in their separate cubicle worlds. It made me smile, and it made me weepy. This was a great subject for an audio play and the script really brought to life the realities of relationships at their beginnings and endings. Even when you’re on your fourth dog there may still be scope for both of these at once. Thanks to writer, actors, sponsors and all involved in the production.
Really enjoyed listening to the first of hopefully many productions. The concept suited the medium, and besides the superb acting, script, plot etc, I also appriciated the use of foley to punctuate and set the scene. Well done, I look forward to your next production.