When The Dog/The Cat premiered in Belvoir’s Downstairs Theatre in 2015, it sold out in next to no time, delighting audiences so much that four extension weeks were added.

^{Benedict Hardie and Xavier Samuel in the 2015 production of The Cat. Photograph @ Brett Boardman}

Now, the double bill of romantic comedies by Brendan Cowell and Lally Katz has a return season in the larger Upstairs Theatre and already an extension week has been added due to demand. Inevitably, the production doesn’t have quite the same intimate feel as in the smaller venue, but happily it’s still a delightful piece of theatre with oodles of charm.

The evening begins with Cowell’s The Dog, set in an inner-city park where three 30-somethings regularly walk their dogs. The scruffy, downcast Ben (Xavier Samuel) meets smart university lecturer Miracle Malone (Sheridan Harbridge) when they are out walking their respective pooches, Jerry (named after Jerry Seinfeld) and Lola. But Miracle, it transpires, already knows Jerry, having met his co-owner Marcus (Benedict Hardie), Ben’s flat-mate. Once best mates, the two men have had a falling out and are no longer talking.

They’re a classic...