Review by Steve Bennett

Their impersonations, while not 100 per cent slavish, certainly capture the spirit of the originals. As Ollie, Philip Hutchinson is a master of acting with his eyes, getting laughs from just the perfect look. But to isolate one without the other is as futile as trying to divide the original duo: it’s the partnership that makes it work, and Tony Carpenter is just as strong as Stan, bringing a vulnerability and poignancy to the role.

Convention - or cliché - dictates that any play involving a dead comedian must involve them in heaven or purgatory, and while that’s established here, it’s not dwelt on. Instead Stan and Ollie ponder how they ever got, and stayed, together as they re-enact scenes from their lives.

With the versatility low-budget fringe theatre demands, they leap in and out of supporting characters, fromthe music hall owner who gave boy comic Stanley Jefferson his first break in the music halls to Hal Roach, the producer who put the two of them together and drove their success.

We meet them at their births, follow them though the vaudevillian stage, and on to the punishing schedule of more than four films a year for a decade... until fears of hubris led the fretful Laurel to prompt a split from their mentor Roach, leading to an artistic spiral that hit a low with their miserable final film, Atoll K.

The late Tom McGrath's classic script seamlessly weaves their stories, both personal and professional with dialogue from their movies and – of course – plenty of moments of slapstick. Yet it (nearly) always feels graceful, not gratuitous in a production that’s the epitome of restrained precision. And never more so when they recreate the duo’s timeless, perfectly-choreographed dance from Way Out West.

The script can’t quite avoid the usual biographical trap of such unnatural background lines as Roach saying ‘Laurel & Hardy? OK, let’s give it a try...’ or ‘The Music Box, that’s just won us an Oscar’, but it’s a triumph that it packs so much in without feeling over-rushed or contrived, while the actors provide enough warmth and wit that should appeal even to those who wouldn’t count themselves Laurel and Hardy fans. There’s a feeling more could be said (indeed full versions of this play run for nearer two hours) but pace is a strength of this production.

Lucky Dog, a new Surrey-based named after the first film in which Laurel and Hardy appeared together, have certainly hit the ground running with this confident, enjoyable offering.

Review date: 22 May 2013
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Brighton Media Centre