A British dark comedy with an all-female cast is a rarity; add custard creams, a few Chardonnay bottles, and you have ‘Dog Play Dead’. It’s nicely aware of its own predictability, and nicely blind to its own surprises – including the amusingly out-of-place soundtrack. The dynamic between the four characters is tremendously well-scripted, pacy and fizzing with antagonism. Though the denouement, from battling over biscuits to battling with sadistic gangsters, could have been smoother, we’re not watching this play for narrative sequence! We’re watching it for the hilarity of characters responding to gun-wielding Dalmatian-owners. Some may find its range of ‘middle-class white-girl problems’ a smidge self-indulgent, but any fans of HBO’s ‘Girls’ will lap this right up.

theSpaces on the Mile, until 29 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Sarah Murphy]