![Taylor Paliaga and Alexander Clubb in Dogfight. Picture by Janelle McMenamin Taylor Paliaga and Alexander Clubb in Dogfight. Picture by Janelle McMenamin](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/MxhEgQKUJhZgHxwVaKiqcq/a017a001-ea8a-4be4-a7fe-b2250d291c54.jpg/r0_509_4520_3054_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The title of the musical Dogfight refers to a particularly cruel bet.
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In 1963, three marines who call themselves "the three Bs" - Birdlace (Alexander Clubb), Boland (Will Collett), and Bernstein (Grayson Woodham) are out on the town in San Francisco for one last night of revelry before being shipped off to Vietnam.
As part of their evening, they make a bet: everyone puts money into a pool and whichever man brings the ugliest woman to a party - as judged by a bar singer (Pippin Carroll) - will take the lot.
One of the marines, Eddie Birdlace (Alexander Clubb), comes across the sheltered Rose (Taylor Paliaga), a shy waitress who loves music and writes songs, and without telling her why, takes her to the party.
But Eddie starts to have pangs of conscience. What will happen when Rose finds out why she's there?
The subject matter of the show raises a delicate point: are the female cast members playing the dates really meant to be "ugly"?
Pagliaga, for whom Rose is "a dream role", says, "We know it's acting."
But, she adds, "You need to have some confidence to be in this musical" even if the "plain" look is created through costuming and makeup in 1960s styles.
Dogfight, she says, "is a story about two people trying to understand each other from completely different worlds...It's a story about self-discovery and self-acceptance."
While acknowledging the misogynistic theme - partly of the time in which it was set - makes it "a hard sell", Pagliaga says, "You have to come and see it to feel the warmth".
"I think it's a beautiful show."
Grant Pegg and Kelly Roberts are directing Dogfight - which has songs from Ben Pasek and Justin Paul, whose previous credits include Dear Evan Hansen and La La Land - for Dramatic Productions. Because of COVID, the show, originally to be performed in 2020, was postponed multiple times, cancelled, then revived. Remarkably, only two ensemble cast members had to be replaced and one of the actors is returning from Melbourne to perform.
Clubb says that despite all the delays and problems, Dogfight was "reinvigorated, like a phoenix rising from the ashes" and is looking forward to opening night as the show finally comes to the stage.
Eddie, he says, is a challenging role to play, a young man from a low socio-economic background who bought into the military rhetoric and signed up "as a way of escaping who he was".
But for all the talk of adventure and military glory, the marines' behaviour doesn't make them seem heroic - especially the dogfight which the characters arrange and which was taken from reality.
"It was a US Marine tradition, something they did."
Ostensibly it was meant to help the marines dehumanise others - the enemy - before going to fight.
But, of course, it was really hurting innocent people rather than creating heroes.
And the audience, with the benefit of hindsight, knows that many servicemen returned from Vietnam damaged and uncelebrated.
Despite some of his actions, Clubb says Eddie does gain some self-awareness and possibly even earns some redemption.
"He does some mean things ... but the audience has to feel sympathy for him and bond with the character."
Dogfight is on at Gungahlin College Theatre from January 27 to February 4. Coarse language, adult themes, recommended for audiences 15+. See: stagecenta.com.
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