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THE Little Dog Laughed
By Douglas Carter Beane
Directed by Michael Gow
Queensland Theatre Company
Cremorne Theatre
Queensland Performing Arts Complex
South Bank
Brisbane

IT SEEMS it’s the week for on stage nudity. La Boite’s Hamlet saw Helen Howard strip off and now with the QTC it was the turn of the men as Nick Cook as rent boy Alex and Tom O‘Sullivan as movie star Mitchell undressed for naked clinch.
Mitchell is the Hollywood star just about to make his leap into mega stardom, protected by his agent, Diane who is faster than a speeding bullet and can leap tall buildings at a single bound when it comes advancing her charge’s career.
The only thing she has to worry about is Mitchell’s “little adventures”: he tends to ring up a rent boy when he’s had a few drinks every so often. He insists he is not gay, he just forgets he’s straight when he’s drunk.
Rent boy Alex turns up in Mitchell’s hotel room. He confesses to turning tricks for money - and maintains he’s not gay either. He lives with girlfriend Ellen and has regular sex with her.
Ellen is 23 and terrified of the oblivion of Hollywood middle age – 25. She has just been dumped by an elderly author and not happy about that.
These four oddball character meld into a script that is loud, funny and extremely clever.
Douglas carter Beane has created a play that runs with monologues, over-the-top characters and cleverly clichéd situations that mirror the soap opera life of the Hollywood we read about in popular magazines. Even the plotline is pure soap and yet it doesn’t matter for it is screamingly funny and somehow, Beane manages to make his outlandish characters believable.
For a nice change the gay characters are completely “normal”. They are not raging queens or limp-wristed fops, but real men who find each other attractive. Then, just like a B movie, when things are starting get sorted out for Mitch and Alex, another clichéd sub-plot emerge to keep the comedy high.
Will Diane, the woman of steel sort things out before the final reel? Of course she will and it will be on her terms.
Michael Gow’s production is quirky and different. Stage manager Jodie Roche wanders on and off the set, moving props, setting up microphones like a rock band roadie and generally taking part in the play. Simone Romaniuk’s set is excellent too, with an upper deck that doubles as an office and a jet plane. This is particularly useful when she has a phone conversation with Mitchell.
The cast, without exception is outstanding.
Mellanie Zanetti, one QTC’s emerging artists this year, has taken a step up from her small, but excellent performance in The Crucible last year. She played the mercurial, neurotic and ditzy Valley Girl Ellen with a broad Bronx accent and she bounced through the play with enormous energy and terrific comic timing. Nick Cook’s Alex had exactly the right detachment for a guy who sells his body and he played it cool all the way. He created a nicely rounded character that was a perfect foil for the confused Mitchell.
Tom O’Sullivan came late into the play and had just two-and-a-half weeks to master the role of Mitchell and what a wonderful job he did. He took us through all the insecurities of movie starl, and with his tentative fights with Diane, showed his weaknesses. There was never a moment when you thought he might beat the system.
Now riding over this show like a colossus was the marvellous Caroline Kennison, with her brash American accent and confident strides across stage, she was the agent from, heaven or hell, depending on which side of the contract you were on.
She was tough and she was funny and she was utterly engaging to watch on stage. She completed this quality quartet of actors who performed an hilarious, quality and offbeat comedy.
It continues at the Cremorne until March 13. Bookings on QTIX 136246.
www.absolutetheatre.com.au

Photo: Mellanie Zanetti, played the mercurial, neurotic and ditzy Valley Girl Ellen