Review: The Little Dog Laughed

The Little Dog Laughed
Ensemble Theatre
Until 15 August
Tickets $23-47
Bookings (02) 9929 064
Critic’s Rating 7/10


Welcome to Hollywood, where life is short, smiles are fabricated and reputation is everything.

Diane (Alexandra Flower) is a hard-nosed, ambitious and straight-talking agent determined to see her client, Mitchell Green (James Millar) join the celebrity juggernaut.

Mitchell is a rising star with a future carved out playing boy-next-door roles. He’s blonde, neat and has pearly white teeth. The problem, however, is he has this "recurring case of homosexuality".

Diane, a lesbian, understands the only people who make the world turn around are white, middle-upper-class straight men. This is, after all, Hollywood - a place where "if a perceived straight actor portrays a gay role in a feature film, it's noble, it's a stretch. It's the pretty lady putting on a fake nose and winning an Oscar."

Mitchell, for the sake of his career, can’t afford to stray from the conservative pack. But Mitchell is quickly falling for Alex (Lindsay Farris), a cute young rent-boy he hires one night after a day of wheeling and dealing in New York.

Alex, who’s in a casual relationship with Ellen (Alexa Ashton), becomes smitten by the boy-next-door actor. Ellen, on the other hand is falling in love with Alex, starts to feel him emotionally detaching himself as he spends more time with Mitchell.

The love triangle is certain to get messy and Mitchell’s life starts to turn sour as his heart begins to lead his head. That’s until Diane walks back into his life to ‘fix’ the problem.

This is a toned-down and slightly edited version of the original script by US playwright Douglas Carter Beane but The Little Dog Laughed is one of the most refreshing programming decisions the Ensemble Theatre has made in quite a while.

For the audience, including the man who sat down to eat his curry, rice and naan during the first ten minutes of the show (yes, really), this is a captivating and bittersweet comedy that is sharp, insightful and beautifully performed.

Fowler is perfectly cast as the agent and has just the right amount of self-deprecating irony to have the audience in raptures. Millar and Farris are lovingly portrayed as the star-crossed gay lovers and newcomer Ashton is wonderfully droll and has the timing of a Swiss clock.

Directed by Andrew Doyle, this is an honest production that doesn’t ponder and lets the laughs flow as easily as a Hollywood gossip column.