BRED TO PERFECTION Accidental Productions City Soul, Hutt Street Until 12 Mar 2011 Review by Jamie Wright Adulated from Ko van den Bosch’s original Dutch script by Alex Vickery-Howe and director Joh Hartog,“Bred to Perfection” is a series of short pieces, all set in a public dog-walking park. The skits – including two thoroughly vile, bored housewives complaining about the integration of nonwhitesinto society; a harried husband trading his dog for a role-playing masochist; three men discussingthe merits of different kinds of fats; an Elvis lookalike stalker getting his comeuppance; and anintellectual poodle fending off the attention of an amorous German shepherd – deal, to a greater orlesser extent, with societal issues such as racism, the need for freedom and the homeopathic treatmentfor serious mental disorders. The six performers - Ashton Malcolm, Caitlin McCreanor, Kate Dayman, Chris Asimos, David Hirst andTim Smith - handle the rapid costume changes well, and show a good ability for character differentiationand physical comedy. While there are frequent moments of dark-humoured hilarity, there are otherswhere it becomes too over-the-top without any real subtlety; at other times the pace drops and itbecomes grating and unfunny with seemingly little depth – the ‘escaped mental patient’ scene, inparticular, felt very laboured. There was an overall feel of the unpolished to this production; more time and refinement would surelymake biting satire more impactful. Rating: 2 stars (out of 5)