Peanuts come of age in delightfully subversive ‘Dog Sees God’
by Chuck Graham on Sep. 11, 2008, under CalendarGrade: A
These aren't the "Peanuts" you remember from your childhood. Now, the kids, whose names are also a little different, are all grown up and have all new issues.
It’s been a long time since any Tucson crowd looked so excited about a stage play. Especially a crowd of people in their 20s, reluctant to leave the theater lobby though it was well past midnight.
The air was filled with a chattering buzz at Live Theatre Workshop, where the late night series is produced by Etcetera. Everyone stood around in the doorway, hugging, talking, both excited and amazed by the opening night performance of “Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead” by Bert V. Royal.
As each of the cast’s nine actors stepped out from backstage, wearing innocent street clothes and looking like normal people, they were swarmed by admirers. The energy was shimmering, generated by a remarkable eagerness to keep the spirit of the night alive a little longer.
Everyone, it seemed, had something to say about what they had just seen. Danielle Dryer, the director, has created something remarkable out of what is, essentially, a one-joke set-up: Imagine what all the kids from the “Peanuts” comic strip would be like as high school students.
It does help to be a little bit familiar with all those characters given so much personality for so many decades by Charles M. Schulz. All the names have been changed to protect the playwright from a lawsuit. To compensate, the dialogue contains clues about each one’s original comic strip identity. Nobody in this crowd had any trouble keeping up.
The lad named CB (Christopher Johnson) wears a yellow T-shirt with a jagged black stripe. He has a lot of the same insecurities as Charlie Brown.
CB has some new problems, too, what with sex rearing its ugly head. Although the girls like CB, he has a fascination for one of the boys.
The fickle finger of fate has also flicked a mean curve ball toward blanket-hugging Linus. Or rather toward Van (Paul Matlock), who is rapidly becoming addicted to recreational drugs.
The substitution of one mental crutch for another began when all the other kids got together and stole Van’s security blanket. They burned it and gave Van the ashes. Undeterred, Van smoked the ashes, blending them with some choice marijuana.
Matt (Alex Garday) is the lad once known for his untidy pig pen appearances. He’s all cleaned up now and totally obsessed with a desire for sex – any kind of sex, just so it is hetero.
Well, you can see where all this is going. The teen known as CB’s Sister (Amanda Gremel) has joined the goths and become dedicated to a wardrobe of black and deep purple.
Two of the other girls, Tricia (Hannah Taylor) and Marcy (Michele Loera), have chosen the high excitement of low-life sluts. As performers these two together thrive on a terrifically natural chemistry that is total fun.
Ashley Kane as Frieda and Torrey Mansur as Van’s Sister complete the cast. It is a lot of players, but everyone shares the spotlight. Dryer keeps the action moving as one scene quickly follows another in a couple of days at school. The F-word gets tossed around like a beach ball. There’s boy-on-boy hugging and kissing, too, which totally delights the audience.
Maybe Charles M. Schulz wouldn’t approve of the vigorous immorality now being displayed by the kids he created. But in the Etcetera performance at Live Theatre Workshop, the SRO audience loved every word.
———
IF YOU GO
What: Etcetera presents “Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead” by Bert V. Royal
When: 10:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays, to Sept. 20
Where: Live Theatre Workshop, 5317 E. Speedway Blvd.
Price: $8-$11
Info: 327-4242, www.livetheatreworkshop.org
Grade: A
