On paper, it’s Peanutty, this hip and outrageous parody that dares to imagine Charlie Brown and pals as pot-smoking, sexually compulsive teen derelicts.
On stage, it’s a brazenly funny and wrenchingly honest treatise on growing up, one that would pass as a universal exploration of modern teen angst even if the characters weren’t indelibly entwined with your own childhood memories.
Imagine a hormonally juiced 16-year-old so raging with homophobia his hands clench, his jaw locks and even his eyelid twitches. Not so hard – just imagine Matthew Shepard’s killers. Now imagine this cauldron of hate is beloved Pig Pen. The object of his bile: the piano prodigy Schroeder. Is this brilliance or blasphemy?
Before answering, first imagine any 16-year-old bully bashing any gay teen’s head into a piano, slamming the cover down and smashing his gifted fingers. When that bully was 8, don’t you think he was as adorable as a cartoon character?
What happens to our children in the interim? Where do they learn such hate? What happens to make so many kids so unrecognizable by 16, shed of their childhood essences, now inhabiting growing bodies in the joyful discovery of their sexual and physical power – yet mired in the accompanying narcissism and emotional pain?
That’s what Bert V. Royal undertakes in his provocative and cathartic play, “Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead” at the Avenue Theater. It’s one of those rare stagings that makes you say, “If you see anything, you gotta see this.”
Even if it drives you mad.
“Dog Sees God” will vex anyone with a pristine affinity for Charles Schulz’s iconic characters. For when Royal messes with them, he’s messing with our own childhoods.
How much mess? Remember when young Lucy (Karen Slack) dispensed dime-store psychologies for a nickel? Yeah, she’s now in a psych ward for setting the Little Red-Headed Girl on fire. Linus’ (Jeremy Make) new security blanket is his bong – which he used to smoke his old one. Peppermint Patty (Amanda Earls) and Marcie (Missy Moore) are exploding with sexual curiosity. Everything out of their ditzy mouths is now funny, but tinged in the sadness of their having abandoned brainpower for banal popularity.
Little Sally (Elgin Kelley) is most heartbreaking of all. She emerges in each scene with a new identity – she’s Goth, she’s a platypus, she’s a gangster. She’s a butterfly undergoing a painfully hard metamorphosis Kelley brings to achingly sweet life.
But get this: To complete your reversal of expectations, Charlie Brown (a great Jack Wefso) is one of the cool kids, and he’s by far the most well-adjusted. But his deep sadness for the recent death of his beloved beagle has him asking deep existential questions.
The play’s only misstep is a big one: In a script bleeding with honesty, Charlie happily, even doggedly, pursues his sudden physical attraction for the long-persecuted Schroeder. The possibility of real happiness is a believably crippling burden for a deeply suspicious Schroeder (a triumphant Steven J. Burge), but Charlie’s angst-free sexual experimentation rings not even slightly true.
(By the way, Royal has altered the names to avoid lawsuits. Charlie Brown is CB, Linus Van Pelt is Van, etc.)
Director Nick Sugar elicits revelatory performances from each of his eight actors. Some are more challenged than others, but all deliver unforgettable moments of comedy and pathos: Slack in Lucy’s one, heartbreaking hospital scene; the frighteningly composed Kent Randell, whose Pig Pen now moves in a swirl not of of dirt but of hate. Earls and Moore are indescribably funny, and Linus’ philosophies are now priceless delivered in a haze of pot and Buddhism.
I also adored how Lamecia Landrum has turned Charlie Brown’s trademark jagged-lined shirt into one of swerves, brilliantly conveying his now complex ambiguity and confusions.
But I also recognize this as manipulative and agenda-driven theater. Royal’s objective was not to simply write a play imagining the Peanuts gang as teenagers. His objective was to imagine, “What if several of the gang grew up to be gay?” There’s a big difference. Still, it’s a deeply affecting and smartly written manipulation.
New York critics weren’t too impressed in 2005, but that cast was populated by TV heartthrobs like Eddie Kay Thomas (“American Pie”), Ian Somerhalder (“Lost”) and America Fererra (“Ugly Betty”). This is a cast of exquisite stage actors who are nothing if not impressive.
“Dog” begins and ends in death. Talk about good grief.
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“Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead”
DARK COMEDY | The Avenue Theater, 417 E. 17th Ave. | Written by Bert V. Royal | Directed by Nick Sugar | Starring Jack Wefso | THROUGH JUNE 9 | 7:30 Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays (plus May 7) | 2 hours | $15-$22 | 303-321-5925 | CAUTION: Profanity and sexual situations.
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4 more
“WICKED” The triumph of the little green witch returns to the Buell Theatre on Wednesday through June 3. The 90,000 prime seats are long gone, but you have two shots at limited-view seats. Up to 70 are set aside for each performance and can be purchased now for full price ($80). Or take your chances on a daily lottery for all unsold leftovers that will go for $25. Details: 303-893- 4100 or denvercenter.org.
“ONCE UPON A TIME: THE END” Theatre 13’s contemporary fairy tale looks at one woman’s often hapless attempts to find a happy ending – and her prince – in an increasingly impersonal world. Written and performed by Kjersti Ingela Webb and Bethany Jean Urban, who employ clown and Le Coq-based physical theater techniques. Final performances 8 p.m. today and Saturday at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, 1750 13th St. Tickets $11-$13 (303-443-2122, bmoca.org).
“RAGTIME” The area’s only current four-star production now features Leonard Barrett as Coalhouse Walker. 7 p.m. Tuesdays-Wednesdays, 7:45 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 1:45 and 7:45 p.m. Sundays (dinner 90 minutes before) through May 26 at Boulder’s Dinner Theatre, 5501 Arapahoe Ave. $32-$53 (303-449-6000 or bouldersdinnertheatre.com).
“TRUE WEST” Sam Shepard’s masterpiece about two mismatched brothers who meet up at their mother’s home and delve into their bizarre family history. 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays through May 19, plus 2 p.m. May 20, at the Armstrong Hotel, 259 S. College Ave. in Fort Collins. $10 (970-484-5237 or fctix.com).
— John Moore
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ONLINE PODCAST
RUNNING LINES WITH … VICTORIA MATLOCK: The Greeley-schooled star of “Wicked” (she’s Elphaba) talks with Denver Post theater critic John Moore. listen at denverpost.com/theater
