The Peanuts gang have grown up in “Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead,” the 2004 play by Bert V. Royal that’s an unauthorized parody of creation. At the Bug Theatre through Dec. 5, it’s a sharp-tongued, well-cast affair best for those familiar with the original strip.
* * ½ | Dark Comedy
While a strain of gentle cynicism ran through Schultz’s beloved comic strip, it was never actually dark. The kids were reliable constants, forever young, forever making the same silly slips over nearly 50 years.
Fast-forward and they are angst-ridden, drug-addled and disturbed teens, variously dealing with homosexuality, suicide, sexual abuse, eating disorders and identity crises.
The play opens with the funeral for a certain beagle, who died of rabies after eating a certain little yellow bird … and gets more twisted from there. R.I.P. Snoopy and Woodstock, already written out as the show begins and never mentioned by name.
None of the Peanuts characters are named. Charlie Brown is represented as “CB,” his sister Sally, now in an angry Goth phase, is simply designated “CB’s sister”; Linus the philosophical dreamer is now a pothead named “Van.” Schroeder is called Beethoveen and still attached to his piano, Pigpen is now “Matt,” the homophobe, and Lucy is just “Van’s sister.” A multitude of quiet jokes reference the comic strip, from the small zig-zag design on CB’s shirt pocket to the humming of
Where Charlie Brown was continually fooled by Lucy sadistically yanking away the football at the last minute, here, CB visits Lucy in an institution where she is locked up for setting the Little Red-Haired Girl’s hair on fire. Turns out CB and Lucy have slept together.
CB is unexpectedly dealing with his fluid sexuality and is falling for Beethoven.
CB is played with low-key charm by Matthew Davis. Logan Hurd exhibits appropriate nervous energy as Beethoven, Tara Rose Kelso brings fluid movement to her role as the raging, lifestyle-changing CB’s sister.
Sean Verdu fumes and shouts as Matt, whose dirtiness in his Pigpen youth has now been turned into homophobia.
Rachel D. Graham energizes the second act as Van’s sister, the unbalanced, still sadistic sibling, now a pyromaniac.
Janessa O’Fallon vamps it up as the mean, foxy party girl Tricia (Peppermint Patty). Jane Simonds is equally convincing as her boozy sidekick Marcy (Marcie); Tricia and Marcy get into a three-way with Matt.
Director Deb Flomberg has split the play into two acts, breaking the momentum (it is often performed with no intermission). The spare set, with piano at the rear and rain cloud overhead, works well, evoking the spare style of the cartoonist’s panels. The lighting needs work.
There’s an attempt at depth to the parody, with CB questioning the nature of existence when he speaks to his Creator, er, Pen Pal. But the show works best as a dark comedy about the horrors of the teen years and the hell that is high school, relying on the audience’s knowledge of the old gang.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830, jostrow@denverpost.com or @ostrowdp
“DOG SEES GOD: CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE BLOCKHEAD”
By Bert V. Royal. Directed by Deb Flomberg. With Matthew Davis, Tara Rose Kelso, Alexander Evert, Rachel Graham, Logan Hurd. Adult themes. At the Bug Theatre, 3654 Navajo St. Tickets $15 in advance, $20 door. Call 720-984-0781 or online equinox theatredenver.com.
