‘Dog Sees God’ doesn’t need forced tears

"Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead" is a look at the "Peanuts" gang on the cusp of adulthood as seen through the eyes of a cynical, existential hipster -- a Garry Trudeau, a Steve Martin. What makes Las Vegas Little Theatre's current production so enjoyable is that director Walter Niejadlik and his cast, along with playwright Bert V. Royal, have caught the spirit of these comic strip characters -- even though the characters seem to exist in a different dimension.

No subtlety in the personages' names. Our hero is called CB (played by Joshuah Laird). When we first meet him, he's writing a letter to his pen pal telling him about the death of his beagle from rabies. "When my dog died," he writes, "that was when the rain cloud came back and everything went to hell." Along the way to his emotional recovery, we witness his dealings with drug use, homosexuality, suicide. In short, Charlie Brown grows up.

I'm not sure the late Charles Schulz would have disapproved of Royal's approach. There was always a layer of melancholy to the "Peanuts" comic strip, something that suggested tough times were ahead. Royal's writing has enough humor and humanity to justify this treatment as homage.

Niejadlik keeps the tone delicate and fast. And most of his actors are able to keep up. There's a danger to the puffed-up energy of Amanda Kraft as CB's sister, an Elvira-wannabe. Sam Craner as a stoner (formerly known as Linus) gives his role a genuine sense of lunacy. And JJ Gatesman makes his Beethoven character a boy who seems too sensitive to survive the real world.

There's a problem with the gay aspects of Beethoven's relationship to CB, because neither actor seems to commit to that aspect of the play. The two actors have no chemistry between them because, I suspect, they don't know what that chemistry is supposed to be. (The characters don't know if they're gay, but that doesn't mean they're blank.)

And the ending is so sloppily teary (only partly the writer's fault) that it threatens to cancel out much of the goodwill the production has earned. "Dog Sees God" doesn't need forced tears. Its lightness has a realistic enough core to communicate all the seriousness and empathy the play needs.