Dramaturg’s notes: Mistaken Identity takes its place as the latest in the Dog! Series, a group of short one acts of almost encyclopedic scope, featuring a young child in a mix of quotidian settings typifying contemporary urban life announcing to his parents the presence of canines he has discovered by sight of, more typically, by the sound of barking at a variety of distances and from every direction of the compass or, indeed, the sphere. More specifically, Mistaken Identity both belongs to and comments on the portion of the Dog! oeuvre centered in the home, in which the sound of barking breaks the literal fourth wall of the apartment, a visitation from the outside world that both delights and carries with it an implicit threat, a reminder of the fragility of domesticity.

MISTAKEN IDENTITY

Lights up.  The BIONIC family apartment, early morning. THE BEAN is playing in the living room while SUGAR prepares breakfast.

SFX: A low, loud FART, from SUGAR’s direction.

Pause.

THE BEAN: Dog?

Lights down.