Dog Sees God / Avery Schreiber Theatre/ North Hollywood / Runs until April 17th
Reviewed by Ethan Silver
Photo: Adam Epelbaum and Chiara Russi
Whatever
happened to Charlie Brown?
The last I heard of this famous Peanuts
character, he was still trying to kick that football, get his kite to fly and
just fit in to his comically tragic world of pre-pubescence.
It seems that Peanuts creator, Charles M.
Schulz, was content with keeping his cartoon characters forever young and, due
to copyright restrictions, other writers would be smart to steer clear of their
own interpretations of this beloved material.
What if the story continued and the Peanuts
kids entered high school?
Enter the world of
Dog Sees God:
Confessions Of A Teenage Blockhead where
writer Bert V. Royal cleverly includes characters and subjects strikingly
similar to Schulz’s creation in a story that surely, in no way corresponds to
the Peanuts franchise (wink, wink).
From the
start it is apparent that this will not be a lighthearted
High School
Musical type tale as CB (Zach Hatch) opens
with a surprisingly tragic monologue in which the audience learns the sad fate
of his dog and a little yellow bird.
The loss of his furry friend causes CB to
question what happens after we die, spurring a journey of self-discovery and
acceptance that leads him to his friends for advice.
In doing so, he reconnects with his old
friend, Beethoven (Jesse Reyes), a tormented loner who takes solace in playing
piano.
When their friendship takes an unexpected turn, CB’s
best friend Matt (Deondray Randolph) gets involved in a way that brings the
entire group together.
Enter Van (Adam Epelbaum), Tricia York (Olivia
Delgado), Marcy (Samantha Cardona), CB’s sister (Chiara Russi), Beethoven (Jesse
Reyes) and Van’s Sister (Mary Neely).
Far from normal, these colorful characters are
a mishmash of sex, drugs and absolute dysfunction featuring alcoholics, pot
smokers, sex addicts, sociopaths, bullies and rejects.
Each character is different but they find
themselves on a similar journey.
At the play’s conclusion, CB receives a
message, echoed by the ensemble cast, with answers he has been searching for his
entire life.
This ending will have you leaving the theater
feeling hopeful and fulfilled.
The play is
excellent and serves as the perfect starting point for a successful performance.
The Askew Theatre Company and Director Travis
Donnelly bring
Dog Sees God to
the audience in a delightful adaptation, utilizing a cast with top level talent.
Zach Hatch does a fine job as CB, the straight
man in a sea of loony tunes.
He maintains the melancholic, depressed aura
of his disturbed character, yet he still allows for their transformation at the
play concludes.
This reviewer
especially enjoyed Deondray Randolph’s interpretation of Matt, CB’s sex crazed,
germophobic friend.
The heaviest
role of the piece is Beethoven, a loner tormented by the peers who used to be
his closest friends.
Jesse Reyes reprises the role and brings a
feisty sensitivity to his character, while giving the audience no choice, but to
sympathize with his plight.
His hunched stance over the piano brings to
mind a certain Beethoven obsessed cartoon character.
With such a
heavy and sometimes disturbing plot, it is essential to include some comic
relief.
While there are lots of funny moments in
Dog Sees God,
the majority of the laughs come from Van, the pot smoking Buddhist voice of
reason for CB’s issues, and the boy who recently smoked the blanket he held
throughout childhood.
Adam Epelbaum is hilarious as the lighthearted
yet thoughtful Van, hitting his comedic marks with precision and bringing down
the house.
The acting is
solid, the sets and costumes are fun and well thought out, while the lighting is
effective. The
music and sound effects are great and well integrated into the action.
On opening night, there are bound to be a few
hiccups along the way, but with this production they are few and too common to
even mention.
If there is a criticism, it would stem from
sounds emanating from backstage, as is often the case with black box theaters,
those sounds will carry and in this case do carry, to the audience.
Well written
and well acted, the Askew Theatre Company opens strong with an entertaining and
thought provoking production that is akin to a modern day Spring’s Awakening
(the play, not the musical).
With themes exploring sexuality, spirituality,
death, drugs and sex,
Dog Sees God
will break your heart, make you laugh and most importantly, make you think.
Make sure to
see Dog
Sees God at the Avery Schreiber Theatre in