AR Gurney’s comedy burst onto the scene in 1995 and famously featured Sarah Jessica Parker as talking dog Sylvia, pre Sex and the City days. For all that, this is no cutesy animal comedy. Rather it takes anthropomorphosis to its extreme as we dive head first into the psychology of man’s best friend. 

It’s a credit to cast and crew that amidst all this hypothesising about why man wants dog, why man identifies with dog, why woman is jealous of dog, we don’t actually get lost in the words. Indeed there are laughs aplenty to be found in the simple story of Greg finding stray Sylvia and bringing her home to wife of twenty-two years Kate, who is less than enamoured, especially when the threesome quickly turns into a love triangle. 

Many of us identify with Greg’s infatuation with his furry friend and Sylvia’s outspoken remarks are a joy to our ears as we listen to what our own best friends would say if only God had given them the gift. The majority of Sylvia’s dialogue is worth listening to, not only for its delivery, but its take on life. Best line of the evening, from Sylvia to owner, Greg: “Even when you’re being a complete arsehole, I’ll still love you completely”. 

Sylvia’s reaction to the cat and her joy at having mated with Bowser the male dog from across the park is wonderful enlightening prose. Sure I think we miss the occasional point on certain theories relating to Greg’s infatuation, but on the whole we get the picture that he is filling a void after the kids have left home and his wife’s career is overtaking his lack lustre one. 

Simple setting, easy listening soundtrack and furniture used with a brushstroke direction makes the play easy on the eye, though I do wish certain members of the cast would not touch the ‘blacks’ on stage right. And a few technical issues with stage crew ‘appearing’ on stage I’m sure will be ironed out.

I have to say – and I have not said it often, if indeed ever – that this is certainly one of those evenings where the success of it falls completely upon the shoulders of one cast member. Amanda Prasow as Sylvia worked. Not only did she work her butt off, her characterisation worked and we cared. Full credit to Prasow and director John Antony for perfecting moves and motifs that painted the dog for us without slipping into caricature. 

John Clarke and Denise Snoad as Greg and Kate are perfectly matched, foiled by the excellent Robert Owens as fellow dog owner and amateur psycho-babbler Tom, and actress Melissa Roberts, giving us two nicely contrasting roles in Phyllis and Leslie. In these three roles, both Owens and Roberts handle the majority of the ‘heavy’ dialogue and cope well, leaving Clarke and Snoad to tell the story. 

If there are one or two criticisms, and this may indeed be the fault of the script, neither Kate nor Greg seem to display the nervous energy that a New York couple should possess to enable them to live in one of the world’s fastest cities. Also the switch for Kate does seem too quick; in one scene she’s being told by shrink Leslie to ‘shoot the dog between the eyes’ and at that point we can imagine Kate buying the gun. Next scene she’s leaving a business meeting early, regretful that husband Greg is taking Sylvia to her new home. 

That aside, the final scene finds many of us with a lump in our throat as we hear for the first, and probably only time, what our dog would say, if they could, about what lies in their heart and the extent of the love they hold for us mere humans.

This play works on so many levels – it pleased all in the theatre tonight. Those that wish to watch a cutesy comedy about a talking dog coming between husband and wife will not be disappointed. If you seek something a tad deeper with insights into animal behaviour, thought-provoking dialogue touching on man’s best friend, and the decline of the modern marriage, then you won’t be disappointed.

An entertaining evening that illustrates that dogs really do lead a dog’s life and maybe they are the lucky ones. I wonder how many of us in the audience went home and hugged our dogs? I did.

(Note to wardrobe dept: Sylvia’s dog tag occasionally catches the lights and blinds us now and again.) 

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