Reaching Out to Distant Father in ‘Dog Man’

Claudette Sutherland’s “Dog Man” at the Matrix Theatre is a powerful revelation, a one-woman show that starts with a modest reminiscence and builds to a shuddering emotional climax.

Sutherland--a compact woman with a pixieish face (she originated the role of Smitty in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” on Broadway in 1962)--performs on a virtually bare stage, seamlessly weaving together distant and recent past into a moving and deeply forgiving portrait of her father.

He was the “dog man,” a lifelong rambler who crisscrossed America racing greyhounds at parimutuel tracks during the ‘40s and ‘50s. In this unlikely occupation Sutherland finds a tacit but rich metaphor of emotional distance. Though Paul Sutherland communed with his prized hounds--the monologue beautifully and humorously sketches his work life--he was unable to connect with his daughter: The dog man was never a family man.

Yet Sutherland finds redemption in her father’s dotage, when infirmity has forced him to sell the Kansas homestead and move to Los Angeles. Now a querulous, absent-minded old man, he reluctantly makes a kind of peace with his daughter as a final bequest. The performer’s posture toward him remains steadfastly compassionate and accepting, a universally recognizable embrace of patrimony that builds to a final rush of emotion.

Under Bob McCracken’s direction, the show is kept spare, admirably paced and free of sentimentality but not sentiment.

* “Dog Man,” Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. Mondays-Tuesdays, 8 p.m. Ends April 16. $12. (213) 852-1445. Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes.