Toronto Fringe Review: Get A Dog

Photo Credit by Alex Verge featuring Fatma Naguib and Andrew Pawarroo

I walked into Get A Dog, playing at the 2022 Toronto Fringe Festival, half expecting to see a hilarious romp about the joys of pup companions and the importance of adopting. That didn’t happen. What did happen was a 40-minute darkly humorous and intense conversation between two people in therapy, both of whom could have definitely benefited from actual therapy.

Fatma Naguib plays Marwa Sayed, an expensive woman with expensive tastes looking to reconnect with her one true love - money. Andrew Pawarroo plays Alex Agarwal, a therapist working out of a hole in the wall office with flickering lights on a noisy street. Marwa is certain she knew Alex from the past but he’s not the man she used to know. In her first therapy session, they both explore the cost and meaning of wealth, pride, and power swapping the patient-therapist dynamic midway. 

Truth be told, I’m having a tough time breaking down and navigating Get A Dog. Maybe it’s the rapid fire speed in which it was delivered. Maybe it’s the writing - Marwa is a dynamo of a character who is brass, crass and unapologetic. I love that in a character but I didn’t feel that the character got a chance to really breathe enough for the audience to know her until it was closer to the end of the show. With Alex’s character, he didn’t always work in a crummy office. He came from money selling anecdotes and remedies that fed into men’s pride but somewhere along the way it fell apart. There’s more that I want from both characters that this 40 minute show briefly touched on but never dove into.

I do think the performance would benefit if the audience were given more of a chance to get to know the characters better, perhaps make full use of the hour. As it stands, I feel that despite how explosive the interaction was between Marwa and Alex, the show sits lukewarm.

Get A Dog is on now until July 17 as part of the 2022 Toronto Fringe Festival.
Find shows times and tickets here.