You’ve never seen Charlie Brown quite like this: a confused teenager reeling from the loss of a close friend and looking for his place in life amidst the whirlwind of high school. The same is true of the entire cast of characters The Opposite of People (TOOP), the University’s student-run theatre troupe, brought to life last week in their production of “Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead,” written by Burt V. Royal in 2004. The drama, technically a parody, showcases a matured “Peanuts” gang to express the struggles that adolescents face every day.
For the Drama House stage, freshman Amelia Norvell designed utilitarian set pieces like a red doghouse and a cafeteria lunch table to clearly delineate the different environments in the story. Sophomore Angel Morales’ video projections augmented the set design and beautifully underscored the characters’ emotions. The costumes by freshman Stephanie Busch and senior Lakiesha Holyfield accentuated the individual traits of each character and were simply fun to look at.
The show begins with CB, (Charlie’s hip parody name), sitting down and writing a letter to his pen pal about his dog’s death, spurring him on a quest to find heaven. His sister (Sally), still as fickle as ever, can only give him a flimsy answer, while Van (Linus) can’t do much better with his rambling extemporization. CB’s best friend Matt (Pig-Pen), who is now a germophobe, explains that the answers lie in the pleasures of sex and drugs, while the popular girls Tricia (Peppermint Patty) and Marcy (Marcie) question if dogs can even go to heaven.
It is in Beethoven (Schroeder), a social pariah, that CB finally finds someone to talk to even though, as Beethoven points out, they haven’t talked in years and CB bullies him. Despite Beethoven’s initial reluctance to listen to CB, a connection grows between them. This relationship worries the others, especially Matt, but CB chooses to go against social mores in the hope of finding meaning in his life. And he does find it – to some extent – but only after Matt tragically suppresses CB’s and Beethoven’s relationship.
Freshmen Sarah Kinglsey and Neha Jha, who played Tricia and Marcy respectively, were hilarious as stuck-up popular girls and had no trouble representing their characters’ awkward speechlessness in the wake of tragedy. Justin Delgado, a freshman, portrayed Van’s intoxicated mannerisms with ease while bringing out the wisdom of his character’s words. In a cameo as Van’s Sister (Lucy), Amelia Norvell deftly struck a balance between psychiatric unease and real-world rationality.
As the unlikeable Matt, senior Shaquill McCullers had a violent force whose authenticity was at times alarming. Freshman Murie Gillett discerningly played CB’s sister as a capricious yet surprisingly down-to-earth girl, and her monologue “Cocooning into Platypus” was downright hysterical. Beethoven received a powerful portrayal from freshman Brenton Whiting, who was able to reach out to the audience while his character was drawing into himself.
In his debut stage performance Michael Tamburrino played CB with nuance and subtlety. The true beauty of his acting came out in CB’s reflective moments, when he quietly spoke his thoughts aloud. The audience leaned in to hear those words, underscoring Tamburrino’s commanding stage presence during even the most restrained of scenes. It was with a seemingly effortless intensity that Tamburrino brought out the helplessness and recklessness of CB in his search for life’s answers.
Director and senior Brian Giacalone pushed a skilled group of actors to touch upon every emotion in the spectrum with “Dog Sees God.” By doing so, he conveyed the weight of the challenges that teens face daily, such as peer pressure, social stigma, relationship issues, mental disorder, sexual maturation, and bullying. And he made the audience realize how many trials they themselves had overcome to make it this far in life.
TOOP’s next production is of the original plays “Sofia/Portrait,” to premiere on April 10.
Libbey is a member of
the class of 2016.
