WHEN GEOPOLITICS GO TO THE DOGS (AND CATS)

In The Offending Gesture, panicky minions scramble to shield a volatile, thin-skinned despot from a perceived slight. What may not be so funny in real life becomes an absurdist vaudeville in the hands of form-busting playwright Mac Wellman, inspired by actual events: In 1941, the German Foreign Office investigated reports of a Finnish dog, Jackie, trained by his owner to salute at the sound of Hitler’s name. Onstage, the actors play cats playing dogs playing humans, watched over by a Greek chorus of singing Mooncats (i.e., cats living on the moon, natch).