Charlie Brown and the gang is back! Ten years later, the kids are in high school and are ready to address some big questions as they keep on growing up. Linus no longer has his blanket. Marcy and Peppermint Patty are embracing a hard partying, “mean girls” persona. Charlie Brown is, actually, kind of a bully.
Oh, and Snoopy is dead. The play opens with a funeral for the beloved character.
Needless to say this play is a little darker than the comic strip you might remember.
Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead is Bert V. Royal’s unofficial parody of Charles Schultz’s beloved work. This “sequel” has the gang (all with copyright-safe new names) surviving the hormonal and angst-driven years of high school, navigating through self-identity and a world intent on bashing anyone who falls outside of normal.
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How so? Well, Beethoven Schroeder (Tiziano D’Affuso) is the only openly gay student in their high school, and is now the victim of severe bullying from his childhood friends, including CB (Charlie Brown). D’Affuso’s portrayal delivers a tenderness for the music and an affection for his once-torturer CB. Along with a solid performance, his piano playing slips easily through sections of Chopin’s music and Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” at the play’s climax.
At the start of the play, we see CB (Noah Schaefer) searching for answers on death and self-identity following Snoopy’s funeral. Schaefer navigates through quite a bit of trite dialogue to deliver a nuanced performance, and reveal new things about his beloved character. Particularly as CB begins to understand his own horrendous behavior and develops a romantic affection for Beethoven.
I mean, good grief, right?
The idea of an iconic character like Charlie Brown as a gay icon is, honestly, not that shocking or surprising to us now. At the time of this play’s first production in 2004, though, it delivered a message that was much needed in that era, and created quite a stir. Like Laramie Project, and Brokeback Mountain, these productions gave a voice and a message to how gay-straight men were communicating at the time, and just how much a need for change was required.
As in the comic strip and television cartoon, CB’s identity struggle is mirrored by his friends. CB’s Sister (Sophie Schulman) struggles with her own search for self-meaning, adopting Goth and thespian costuming and personalities. Schulman shines as the overlooked character from the strip, eliciting a laugh every moment she entered in a new costume.
For the brief moment she is on stage, Lida Maria Benson commands attention as Van’s Sister (Lucy from the comic strip). In playing the character who, with equal commitment, doles out advice and swipes out at the last minute, Benson masterfully portrays the fine line of humoring and caring for CB. Even though now committed to a mental health institution for arson, she seems to maintain the strongest emotional maturity of the group of teenagers.
Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead closes November 3, 2019. Details and tickets
Van (Jonathan E Miot), taking on the Linus character grown up as the pot-headed philosopher, provides effective comic relief and his movements during the party scene (blink and you’ll miss it), seems to have been perfectly lifted from the Peanuts Christmas Special dance party.
The technical elements deserve high praise for successfully bridging the cartoon world into a real place. The music selection and sound design by Navid Azeez is excellent, and gorgeously complements the story. (Spoilers in this next paragraph) The scene transitions are marked with a mixed sample of the quickly recognizable Vince Guaraldi Trio’s “Christmas Time is Here,” but edited to sound broken, out of sync and tempo, and set to a loop. When CB finds his moment of clarity with Beethoven (one of the few optimistic moments in this dark sequel to your childhood characters), the loop breaks and we hear the rest of the melody.
Cassandra Saulski’s lighting sets the tone for each specific character – light and fluffy when the performers are embracing their cartoon personas, blue and dim when there’s something real to be found. At the play’s climax, the red lighting over Beethoven’s piano keys was an exceptional touch.
Sydney Moore’s costuming is likewise attentive and an effective callback to the original source. CB clearly hasn’t updated his yellow and black shirt preferences. The set (Andrew Cohen), a simple backdrop of the sky and a fence, could have been lifted from the comic strip itself, and works perfectly to build this world of then and now.
Dog Sees God works as an effective sequel, unofficially and unlicensed, to Charles Schultz “Peanuts” world. Prologue Theatre, as part of the start of their second season, has chosen a play that invites audiences to reflect on identity (the theme for their season), and reminds us how perspectives can change, for characters and for audiences, with time and understanding.
Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead. Directed by Jason Tamborini. Written by Bert V. Royal. Performed by: Noah Schaefer, Sophie Schulman, Jonathan E Miot, Conor Patrick Donahue, Tiziano D’Affuso, Annie Ottati, Vanessa Chapoy, Lida Maria Benson. Scenic Design: Andrew R Cohen; Lighting Design: Cassandra Saulski; Sound Design: Navid Azeez; Costume Design: Sydney Moore; Fight Choreography: Casey Kaleba; Intimacy Choreography: Emily Sucher; Technical Direction: Chris Foote; Scenic Charge: Nadia Nikouei; Stage Managed by Kelly McNesby. Produced by Prologue Theatre. Reviewed by Julian Oquendo.
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