Growing up in today's world can be a brutally awful business, at least according to Pen, Paint and Pretzels' first minor production of the semester, "Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead," a play by Bert V. Royal.
The play catches up with the lives of the famous gang from Charles Schultz's "Peanuts" comic strip, 10 years older and a lot more screwed up.
The "Peanuts" characters are scarcely recognizable in the caricatures they become in "Dog," instead appearing as archetypal exaggerations of today's troubled adolescents.
Charlie Brown, referred to by the other characters as CB, sees his life turned upside down when his beloved dog has to be put to sleep after contracting rabies and brutally killing his friend, the little yellow bird.
Sally, known only as CB's sister, struggles with her own issues of identity and dreams of becoming a performance artist. Van - from Linus van Pelt - becomes forever at one with his famous Blankie when he rolls it into a joint and smokes it, and his sister (Lucy) is locked up indefinitely for unrepentant arson.
Beethoven, once named Schroeder, is a bullied loner who only finds solace in his piano. Pigpen is now known as Matt, a "germophobe, homophobe jock," while Marcy and Tricia (Marcie and Pattie) revel in their roles as the slutty cheerleaders on campus. This definitely doesn't sound much like a comic strip.
"I see this show as the anti-'Peanuts,'" said sophomore Sarah Ullman, the play's director. "[It takes] what was innocent, subtly complex and beloved by many and [rips] it open, making something perverse, blunt, and sometimes repulsive."
Certainly, it doesn't shy away from facing some serious issues. "The play is meant to examine homosexuality, suicide and depression in an environment that echoes our own everyday lives: desensitized and thoroughly inadequate," Ullman said. It also touches on child abuse, bullying, social acceptance, grief, substance abuse, friendship and art.
Yet Royal manages to set those subjects into his script with relevance and humor. "CB seems to be on a different maturity level than the rest of the characters, with the exception of Beethoven," said freshman Bradley Starr, who plays CB. We are free to laugh at the antics of those other characters "who are still his best friends," said Starr.
Not only are the characters close, but the cast seems to have developed a tight bond over a remarkably short rehearsal period.
"Working with a small cast and getting to know everyone has been great," said freshman Doug Cohen, who plays Beethoven. "We have pulled it together in under two weeks. I think that feeling is the most rewarding thing."
Ullman agreed, adding, "We cast some really great actors and I loved working with them. It's been a wild ride, but I've had some great support from my production staff [sophomore producer Corey Briskin, junior stage manager Allie Jameson and freshman assistant stage manager Will Huguenin]."
Two weeks is a very limited rehearsal period, even for a 3Ps minor, but Ullman and her production staff have utilized simple sets and costumes, minimizing the technical elements of the show.
Therefore, the focus throughout the process has gone toward developing the characters and their story.
Woven throughout the entire play is the question of identity.
"You know, they say a dog sees God in his Master," Beethoven explains to CB. "A cat looks in the mirror."
When CB's dog dies, it forces him to think beyond the immediate. He asks himself, and subsequently the audience thinks, "Who am I?" Do we define ourselves, he wonders, or does a creator, be it our parents, a cartoonist or God?
Royal's play seems to say that God pulls all the strings. After all, who is the cartoonist but God to these characters?
Van says "Us defines us ... Like me without my blanket - it's still me." But in this case, he's wrong; none of these characters are the same as they once were.
Even their relationships have been irrevocably changed. It quickly becomes clear that Beethoven is a social pariah, but he is the only one of the characters to answer CB's questions with any seriousness or honesty. Their friendship, long buried, is reborn, but leaves them both with questions whose answers might have devastating consequences.
Dog Sees GodWritten by Bert V. RoyalDirected by Sarah UllmanAt the Balch Arena Theatre tonight onlySuggested donation of $1 at the door
