In which the Puget Sound Theater Department simultaneously amazes and vaguely traumatizes Daniel.<\/i><\/p>\n
Originally performed in 2004 as a staged reading in Greenwich Village, Bert V. Royal\u2019s satirical drama Dog Sees God<\/i> is the story of the characters of Charles M. Schultz\u2019s Peanuts <\/i>reimagined as teenagers.\u00a0 Centering around Charlie Brown \u2013 dubbed \u201cCB\u201d in this play \u2013 the characters are faced with eating disorders, homophobia, drugs, and an assortment of other adolescent troubles, struggling with their fears, doubts and one another.<\/p>\n
These issues, and the realm of teenage angst in general, are ones to which I have a fairly strong aversion.\u00a0 Knowing that Royal\u2019s play contained these themes while deciding whether or not to attend the University\u2019s production of it, as part of the Theater Department\u2019s Senior Theater Festival (a theater festival that acts as part of senior theater majors\u2019 theses), I had great trepidations.\u00a0 But in the end, I thought that I wasn\u2019t doing anything much better, and every show before this that the theater department had put on had been extremely impressive, so I took a chance.<\/p>\n
In many ways, there was much for me to dislike about the show, most of which lay in the script itself.\u00a0 Given my adamant feelings against alcohol, I was inclined to dislike a play wherein several characters spend a majority of their time on stage consuming it or under its influence, and I am repelled by excessive, strong language.\u00a0 The script, though originally premiered in 2004, seems reminiscent to me of something from the 1990s, what with its lengthy, meandering monologues and melodramatic adolescent anger.\u00a0 Its inclusion of some more profound themes of God and existence seem oddly placed and rather forced.<\/p>\n
Yet somehow, my experience at this play was, for lack of a better word, stunning.\u00a0 The wandering speeches and confusing, existential themes, which in another theater\u2019s hands could have come across as nothing more than a pretentious stream-of-consciousness, were given with simultaneous derisive power and delicate sincerity.\u00a0 The lack of complex costumes \u2013 comprised mostly of jeans and T-shirts \u2013 or of elaborate set \u2013 comprised of several moveable black blocks and a doghouse\u2013 left the audience with little but the power of the script and the actors\u2019 deliveries of it.\u00a0 This meant that, amid the sarcasm of the parody, moments of true anger, fear and tenderness (of which there are more than a few) cut through the show\u2019s sad, drunk stupor like a knife.<\/p>\n
Of these, the moment of the climax of the show cut through me the most by far (WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD).\u00a0 Two of the main characters of the play \u2013 Beethoven, the reclusive, geeky, gay pianist incarnation of Schroeder, and Matt, the violent, germaphobic, homophobic incarnation of Pig-Pen \u2013 face off after years of Matt\u2019s taunting and bullying of Beethoven, and when Matt threatens Beethoven\u2019s life while he practices piano, Beethoven finally stands up against him.\u00a0 As Matt\u2019s fury gathers, the stage darkens until all the lights focus solely on the piano at which Beethoven sits and Matt stands.\u00a0 Beethoven\u2019s short outburst against his bully ends with him spitting the name \u201cPig-Pen\u201d at Matt, who seizes Beethoven\u2019s hands and smashes them over and over beneath the lid of the piano.\u00a0 Beethoven screams and screams as the stage goes to black.<\/p>\n
In retrospect, I suppose that the force of my immediate reaction and the length of the time that those feelings remained with me were due to the climax being such a violation of my sense of justice.\u00a0 Fury, panic, fear, nausea, sadness and an amazing sense of having been preemptively defeated by the universe struck me and burned inside of me for the remainder of that week.\u00a0 These startlingly clear moments of honesty are, in my humble opinion (and let us be clear that I know almost nothing of the technicalities of theater), one of the strengths of the show that the school\u2019s theater exploited to great effect.\u00a0 This production, then, was a testament to both the script\u2019s heartbreaking, if sometimes awkward and forced, honesty, as well as the focus and clarity in direction of the school\u2019s theater.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to come by something that can talk about issues like these so honestly, and while the show is by no means an accurate representation of high school (or college) as I know it, it\u2019s good to know that someone is willing to step up to the plate for it all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In which the Puget Sound Theater Department simultaneously amazes and vaguely traumatizes Daniel. Originally performed in 2004 as a staged reading in Greenwich Village, Bert V. Royal\u2019s satirical drama Dog Sees God is the story of the characters of Charles … Continue reading