Just a picture-perfect family. Mum, Dad, two kids, and the dog. It might look ideal, but it’s far from it in this new musical from Dr Erin McKellar and Jeremy Anderson, where the dysfunctional family are only held together by the shared affection for the dog, Billy.

So when Billy goes missing, the simmering aggression between husband and wife explodes, and the two sisters bitch about how much better they are than the other. It’s black comedy, with robust language and themes, but it is hilarious: in no small part because of the performance of co-writer Anderson as the dog, Billy. He’s mastered the disgusting habits of the family pet, and in his own dream sequences, converses with the audience as to how hard it is to have to listen to everyone constantly complain.

It’s a quick sixty-minute musical that reveals the cracks of a family just trying to survive together, and the destruction is bleak, though caricatured. Its resolution is far too simple and predictable, and there’s scope for more inventive storytelling – this felt like a workshop for something bigger.

However, its focus here is entertainment, and in that, it’s an over-achiever. The performances are excellent, the music is brash, the lyrics hilariously rude, and songs like ‘Derek Do the Dishes’, ‘I Love the Dog More Than You’, and ‘The Favourite Child’ are clever in narrative and comedy.