The play is "arranged for the stage" by Anne Hardcastle. Performances play at Berkeley Street Theatre, Downstairs.

Winner of the 2005 Lambda Award for fiction, "Wild Dogs" was one of NOW Magazine's Top 10 Books of 2004 and has been optioned for film. This world premiere stars Tamara Podemski, who was the winner of the Sundance Film Festival 2007 Special Jury Prize for Acting — both the first Canadian and first aboriginal in history to win this prize — and an IFC nominee for her work in "Four Sheets to the Wind."

Here's how Nightwood bills the play: "Each evening at dusk, six people gather at the edge of the woods calling their dogs back — dogs that have turned wild. Drawn together by need, this unlikely group forms a community — until violence strikes unexpectedly. Wild Dogs is an unforgettable story about the wild in all of us."

Nightwood artistic director Kelly Thornton, who directs the play, stated, "It is not often that a script comes across my desk that excites me as much as Wild Dogs. It is one of he most daring and original texts I've seen in some time, so much theatricality and an array of brilliant characters told with naked gusto. It's arrestingly honest with a profound message about love and our need to belong."

* In addition to Podemski, the acting ensemble for Wild Dogs includes Stratford Festival veteran Les Carlson, Steve Cumyn (Dora Award-winning lead actor from Angels in America), Tony Nappo (Alias Godot, Da Vinci's Inquest), Raven Dauda (Intimate Apparel, Da Kink in my Hair) — and Taylor Trowbridge and Stephen Joffe in their Toronto stage debuts.

Opening is Oct. 9. For more information call (416) 368.3110 or visit www.nightwoodtheatre.net.