This pet-themed portmanteau doesn’t quite rise to something more than the sum of its parts, but the parts are, in themselves, plenty tasty. Tastier than the show’s title might indicate.

Co-written by Mary Rachel Brown (who has written about dogs and their handlers before in the excellent The Dapto Chaser) and Jamie Oxenbould – who rather brilliantly played a pet chimp named Trevor a few years ago – Chicken in a Biscuit explores the complex relationships between humans and their pets from both perspectives. 

Chicken in a Biscuit: Jamie Oxenbould. Photo © Becky Matthews

Staged in a carpeted pet daycare-style set (an excellent Kate Beere design), the evening begins with a monologue from a sweet tempered, elderly chocolate Labrador (played by Oxenbould in brown tracksuit and floppy ears), who reminds us that, for dogs at least, communication is more olfactory than anything else. His owner might not be the best at expressing love, but old Truffles can smell it from the other side of a footy oval. 

Next we encounter a sassy Burmese Blue (very sassily played by Mandy Bishop, of Wharf Revue renown), a pedigree cat in the throes of adjusting its expectations after being re-homed. Our first human voice of the night is that of Dr Graham Nestbender (Oxenbould), nervously addressing a panel determined to strike him off the register of practising dentists in the wake of a scandal resulting from his venturing down a sexual identity rabbit hole. 

Chicken in a Biscuit: Mandy Bishop. Photo © Becky Matthews

Oxenbould returns as a bereft influencer attempting to turn his photogenic pug’s funeral into a last-chance grab for online clout. After playing an unhappy mutt in a electric shock collar, Bishop comes back more memorably in human form as Janelle, a pet adoption agent whose methods and motives suggest she has neither animal or human welfare first and foremost at heart. But that’s humans, isn’t it? They can make the meanest junkyard dog look angelic.

Chicken in a Biscuit isn’t revelatory, but it’s good company thanks to nuanced character writing and performances from two actors with flawless comic instincts. Brown also directs and does so well – though having Oxenbould deliver the pug funeral oration mostly into to a laptop screen rather than to the audience does detract from its impact somewhat.

And if you don’t leave the room with the makings of a lump in your throat, well, you’ve probably never farewelled a pet.

Chicken in a Biscuit plays at the Old Fitzroy Theatre, Wolloomooloo, until 18 October.