Borut Separovic and Max, his 13-year-old black labrador, to whom he dedicated the play.

ZAGREB (AFP) – Stray dogs play a star role in a groundbreaking Croatian show that has won rave reviews for raising awareness about abandoned canines and homeless people.

Director Borut Separovic’s “Timbuktu,” which premiered in Zagreb at the weekend, is a moving play about social outcasts based on the 1999 novel by US author Paul Auster, who backed the ambitious production.

Separovic took the unusual step of casting a dozen strays from a Zagreb animal shelter, with the main role of Kosta (Mr Bones) played by Cap, an 8-year-old champion border collie.

The play consists mainly of a 45-minute monologue by Mr Bones, with narration provided by actor Sven Medvesek, from his chair in the audience.

On the stage, the gifted pooch runs, lies down or barks – making movements to accompany his “thoughts” about relationships, loss and loneliness in a modern consumerist society.

Mr Bones receives quiet orders from instructor Alen Marekovic in the front row as he recounts the story of his life with his deceased master Willy.

“It’s a story that emphasizes the incredible love between a dog and his master, a homeless person,” Separovic told AFP.

“The voice is metaphorically transferred to all the socially rejected people living in invisible and silent existence,” said the director, who lives and works between Croatia and the Netherlands.

“‘Timbuktu’ offers a therapeutic insight into how not to interpret democracy solely through rights, but also through responsibly and solidarity toward others.” At one point, the 12 stray dogs come on stage, a net falls between them and the audience and the play switches to the style of a documentary.

The narrator, Medvesek, tells the audience: “These dogs have a story which resembles that of Kosta’s. We call on you to provide them a home. You can contact me after the show.” “For me it was extremely important that real, abandoned dogs appear in the play and be given a chance to be adopted,” said Separovic.

“Then fiction enters real life. The play does not stay within a theater framework only, as it continues after the performance,” said the 40-year-old, who runs the Montazstroj performance group. The pack of strays is led by Bel, an amiable half-breed, one of the 150 dogs in the Zagreb shelter.

Critics have heaped praise on “Timbuktu.” The weekly Globus described it as a “unique play which radically breaks through theater boundaries.”