Weekend Top Stop: 'Dog Sees God'

"DOG SEES GOD: CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE BLOCKHEAD" starts innocently enough. The sound of a piano, followed by a barking dog. And then comes the snarling.

Studio Theatre uses its minimalist Stage 4 as the setting for Bert V. Royal's irreverent yet faithful parody of the comic strip "Peanuts." To sum up, Snoopy got rabies, slaughtered Woodstock and had to be put down. C.B. (James Manno) ponders the afterlife to his friends, including Van, a stoner who smoked the ashes of his security blanket. C.B.'s sister is today a Wiccan, yesterday a born-again, and is played ably by Lauren Elaine Williams.

The gang also includes Mean Girls Marcy and her "Sir," Tricia, and Matt, who will pound anyone who calls him Pigpen. There's also Beethoven, whose effeminacy marks him as an outcast and possibly a homosexual.

C.B. finally does something unpredictable, throwing the group into chaos and setting a tragedy in motion. It feels like one of those Shakespeare movies set in a high school, complete with cafeteria politics.

Still, it's good fun seeing where Royal has taken each character. And besides being well equipped for the task, the cast members all have completely normal-sized heads.

» Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW; through Aug. 6; $25; 202-332-3300.

This post was written by Express contributor Erin Trompeter. Photo by Scott Suchman

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