REVIEWED BY CHARLOTTE FRASER
EDITED BY AZMY
CW: This review will discuss themes of sexual violence, war and misogyny.
Walking into Dogfight, I was instantly captivated by the set. Tables and chairs, lights strung along the back of the theatre, paper roses littering the space and an American flag pinned up above the band rostrum. The Kaleide Theatre was smaller than I recalled from my last visit and, considering they had a band onstage, the use of space was impressive. The lights dimmed, the opening night audience eager in their seats, chatting excitedly, looking through the programme, preparing for the show to start. The people around me were clearly close family and friends of the team who put this production together, all of them keenly watching, waiting, bouquets of flowers sitting on bouncing knees. Then the cast flooded the stage – and I mean flooded; there were more of them than I expected and they just kept coming – and the show began.
Dogfight is set in the 1960s and follows a group of Marines in the lead up to their deployment overseas to Vietnam. Following their boyish escapades and blissful ignorance before they’re sent off into a war zone, grossly unprepared for what is to come. The titular ‘dogfight’ is a pre-deployment celebration where the Marines compete to bring the ugliest girl to a party.
Eddie Birdlace (Pacey Dunshea) meets young waitress Rose (Emily Keagan) at a diner and invites her to the dogfight. Fellow Marine Boland (Adam Restaino) pays Marcy (Molly Dale) to come along to help him win. After Boland wins the jackpot – thanks to Macy playing along and removing her teeth to score a perfect 10 from the lounge singer judge (Jo Jabalde) – Rose finds out what the party really was. Eddie tries to make it up to her by taking her out for a dinner he can barely afford, and the two unexpectedly form a genuine connection.
Meanwhile, the other Marines – Boland and Bernstein in particular – get up to all sorts of dodgy late-night activities on their last night in San Francisco. Bernstein is determined not to leave a virgin, resulting in a graphic sexual assault scene with a woman the men have paid to sleep with them.
Morning comes and the Marines are shipped off, only to find that their thirteen weeks of training never prepared them for the horrors they face. Eddie returns alone, having watched all of his friends die in battle, and finds that the public doesn’t view the soldiers who fought in Vietnam as heroes. He doesn’t get a grand, heroic homecoming: just a quiet reunion with Rose, both of them knowing how much things have changed.
I’ll admit: I had insider knowledge when I went into Dogfight, having sat down with Director Eadie Milne a few weeks prior to discuss the show. Despite this – and a humiliatingly long musical theatre phase in high school – RedActs’ Dogfight still managed to surprise me in many ways.
The first thing that surprised me was the overall talent of the cast. Every single person onstage gave a convincing acting performance, and the vocal skill blew me away – props to the work of vocal director Amelia Lau.
In particular, Molly Dale blew me away with her rendition of ‘Dogfight’. She brought an engaging ‘big sister’ quality to Macy’s character, but with an undercurrent of pain that makes her wisdom feel earned. Similarly, Pacey Dunshea’s ‘Come Back’ was equally as heartbreaking to watch, making the audience sympathise with how Eddie has ended up alone and traumatised by what he’s seen.
There is no Eddie without a Rose, though, and Emily Keagan delivers a solid performance. The whole of the first act, all I could think was ‘oh, this poor girl.’ Keagan sold Rose’s innocence and desire to just be wanted like any other girl. Her sweetness violently contrasted the toxic macho boys club energy that the Marines brought. The group – made up of Adam Restaino, Theo Leavey, Jo Jablade, Archie Jacka and Ephina Mastrantuono – were comedic, high-energy and incredibly enjoyable to watch. Moment to moment, the audience was laughing at their banter, then horrified by their cruelty.
One thing to mention is that a few of lines got lost under applause from the audience, such as after Rose slaps Eddie, she yells at him, and I didn’t hear a single word. In the future, I’d recommend holding for applause and making sure that the audience gets to hear everything we’re meant to.
The all-female ensemble gave fantastic performances, nailing the upbeat choreography by Isla Teague and Eva-May Tegart, completing set changes smoothly and darting on and off stage, bringing different characters to life between impressive quick changes. In particular, Amaya Martinez-Doyle and Charlotte Horner caught my eye. Horner’s ditzy party girl effortlessly played off of Marcy’s cynical disposition and Rose’s grounded naivete. Martinez-Doyle shone in the second act, going from giving a heartbreaking performance as the woman the Marines have paid to sleep with them to the snobbish, ballet-dancing waiter at the restaurant Eddie takes Rose for dinner.
The band gave stellar performances, and I was often distracted from the action onstage watching music director Mia Mazzarella manage to conduct the musicians around her while she simultaneously played the violin.
The set and props designed by May O’Connor, Marney Noonan, and Ciel Giles-Manor were spectacular. With an entire pinball machine, a ‘working’ tattoo machine and guns made from sticks, the quality was undeniable. Also a special mention to Archie Jacka’s ‘tattooing’ skills – it made for a nice bit of comedy.
The costuming designed by Ciara Aitken and Ali Grantham was equally as impressive, all fitting the 1960s world, matching each character’s personality well while still remaining a cohesive whole.
The lighting design by Edward Wilding and Quinn Labelle was beautiful to look at, though the heavy use of spotlights – while possessing great dramatic potential – caused some trouble as the actors seemed to struggle to know where to stand, meaning they were often only half-in the light. Though, considering this is student theatre, this can likely be chalked up to time constraints and a limited number of tech rehearsals. Similarly, on opening night there were repeated issues with mics, which did get distracting. Other than that, though, the sound design by Jake Vreudenberg and Sebastian Rafael Liu was excellent, particularly in the war sequence.
The war sequence itself has to be one of the best scenes I’ve seen in a student show in a long time. I knew it was coming – I could see the band slowly turning off their lights one by one – and the Marines all froze in place, staring out over the audience in silence. Lights flashed, gunshots rang out. The movement was perfectly timed with fake blood appearing, marking the men dead one by one. What really sold the emotion of this scene wasn’t just the sequence itself, but the moments before and after. The heavy silence. The darkness. The knowledge that something terrible is about to happen and that Eddie will never be the same again. I also appreciated the note in the programme that advised audiences of when they could leave the theatre to not see the war and sexual assault scenes – a considerate and very necessary inclusion.
Dogfight explores many difficult themes and is full of complicated characters. RedActs’ production skilfully tackled the material with respect and tenacity, not shying away from the ugly parts. One of the most horrific things about this show is knowing that this story is inspired by truth – that these ‘dogfights’ happened. Adding music and dance doesn’t detract from the seriousness of these topics in the way that you’d expect, looking at it on paper. And this production managed to walk the line between upbeat musical theatre fun and serious themes exceedingly well. Difficult things deserve to be spoken about, and in a time where toxic masculinity and violence against women is just as rampant and harmful as it has always been, shows like this give us the space to critique it safely. Congratulations to the team at RedActs for an amazing show!
Dogfight was presented by RMIT RedActs at the Kaleide Theatre May 21 – 23.
CHARLOTTE FRASER (she/her) is a writer, performer and student editor based in Melbourne. She holds a BA in English and Theatre Studies and is currently completing her Masters degree at the University of Melbourne. Charlotte is also the 2026 Dialog Editor.
AZMY is a creative studying a Bachelor of Arts at UniMelb. This year, they are making theatre with The Werkz Emsemble and Cipta Theatre company!
The Dialog is supported by Union House Theatre
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