Lucky Dog

Lucky Dog by Leo Butler is play which premiered in the upstairs Jerwood Theatre of Royal Court in 2004.

Butler has said that he was inspired by the image of a woman turning into a dog and had the title and that image long before the play or narrative. He says that he had written several scenes involving that image and title before he found the Christmas setting and found he could write the play.

The play is split in half with the first part of the action being set a Christmas time in Sheffield and the second almost silent part abroad a year later. It centers on an older married couple Eddie and sue and the bitterness and desperation that comes into their marriage once their son has left home. The central event to the play is where Sue acts like their dog snarling and growling at her husband.

Characters

Sue fifties, desperate for Eddie's attention and to be liked by Brett it is her central transformation into the couple's dog that is key to the play

Eddie fifties, Sue's husband, seemingly indifferent and callous to her in the first half

Brett ten, the neighbour's obnoxious son

Reviews

The Independent reviewed the play saying...

A darkly funny and remarkably poignant portrait of a marriage. Butler;s dialogue combines naturalistic chat, a musical sense of phrase and pause, and surreal episodes. The last act is an extraordinary coup de theatre, imbued with an almost heavenly sense of new-found tenderness and atonement Independent on sunday

The Guardian's review is available Review of Lucky Dog, The Guardian, May 20, 2004, by Michael Billington