Few comic strips ever created their own world as successfully as "Peanuts." Unlike the parallel universes of other cartoon masters -- like Al Capp, whose "Li'l Abner" involved a macrocosmos sprawling over continents, social trends, national and international politics -- Charles Schulz presented a microcosmos that drew pertinent, enduring observations from the interior uncertainties experienced by a small cast of children in a single neighborhood setting.
Bert V. Royal's play, "Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead," now being presented at Out North, revisits those uncertainties as post-pubescent angst.
Though the characters names are altered for copyright reasons, teenage CB -- or "Chuck" -- and his friends are readily identified through references and mannerisms. We quickly get the picture about what's happened to the cute kids who are now getting sex and getting stoned. Extrovert Patricia and introvert Marcy remain best buds. Dope has made Van more philosophical than ever, able to accept even the incineration of his beloved blanket. His sister did that; she's institutionalized, an unrepentant psychopathic arsonist, after igniting the tresses of the redhead sitting in front of her.
CB says in the opening monologue, addressed to his Pen Pal, that it's been a hard few weeks since his dog died of rabies and no one showed up for the funeral. Drinking, eating disorders, manias and phobias haunt the young people as they timorously try on different identities in mostly funny stand-alone skits.
When CB and the piano-playing Beethoven kiss each other in full view of the whole gang at a party, things aren't so funny any more.
While the subject of teen homosexuality drives the main action in the play, the over-arching theme is the question that CB asks of everyone after the death of his dog: "What happens when you die?" That Royal manages to connect the two while employing the very agreeable conceit of revisiting the "Peanuts" characters, is a credit to his ability as a writer.
The script doesn't lend itself to a lot of deep or intense acting. It maintains a comic strip simplicity. The conclusion, more reflective than dramatic, is nonetheless emotionally and intellectually satisfying.
The youthful cast, ably directed by Christina Ashby, is mostly competent. Projection was a problem several times on Thursday night, both because the sound system sometimes drowned out words and also because the performers didn't always pause long enough while the audience was laughing, which meant that some punch lines were obscured by the crowd's reaction to the previous punch line.
In an effort to save trees, Ashby explained, the program is a single sheet of tiny print that should be returned for reuse after the show. We list the cast here along with their not-so-secret identities so that you can clip it and take it with you:
CB (Charlie Brown), David Powell
CB's sister (Sally), Maggie Hill
Van (Linus), Joe Jackson
Matt (Pig-Pen), Dylan Benkert
Beethoven (Schroeder), Scott Heverling
Tricia (Peppermint Patty), Sasha Mushovic
Marcy (Marcie), Morgan Mitchell
Van's sister (Lucy), Danielle Rabinovitch.
Find Mike Dunham online at adn.com/contact/mdunham or call 257-4332.
By MIKE DUNHAM
mdunham@adn.com