''Lucky Dog'' by

Leo Butler Leo Butler (born 1974 in Sheffield) is a British playwright. His plays have been staged, among others, by the Royal Court, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Almeida Theatre. His plays have been published by Bloomsbury A & C Black.

is a play which premiered in the upstairs Jerwood Theatre of

Royal Court A royal court, often called simply a court when the royal context is clear, is an extended royal household in a monarchy, including all those who regularly attend on a monarch, or another central figure. Hence, the word ''court'' may also be app ...

in 2004. It was directed by James Macdonald, and featured

Linda Bassett Linda Bassett (born 4 February 1950) is an English actress. Her television credits include Victoria Wood's '' dinnerladies'' (1999), '' Lark Rise to Candleford'' (2008–11), '' Grandma's House'' (2010–12) and ''Call the Midwife'' (2015–pre ...

and Alan Williams in the lead roles. 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.

was awarded Best Actress for the play at the 2004 TMA Theatre Awards

Reviews

Michael Billington in

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

praised the play, claiming to be "astonished by the 28-year-old Butler's profound understanding of marital solitude" and that "there are many noisier plays around but few capture so well the marital stated summed up by Beckett as “alone together, so much shared.” Adam Scott of

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

described the play as a "provoking hinterland of unspoken trauma" and that "as you reassemble the fragments of the evening, Butler reveals himself as a writer of prescience and subtlety". While Kate Bassett of

The Independent on Sunday ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

reviewed the play as 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".The Independent
/ref> Fiona Mountford of the

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

called the play a "searing yet achingly poignant examination of family life turned sour" in which "the silences, laden with frustration and tension" are "just as powerful as the spoken word". Sarah Hemming of the

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

argued that "in a play so poignantly focused on loss and neglect, the unsaid, the unseen and the offstage play a huge part. You keep expecting something violent to happen, but it doesn’t as Butler’s portrayal of domestic horror is subtler than that. He shows us how cruel the simple withdrawal of love can be."

Notes

{{Reflist 2004 plays Plays by Leo Butler