Your Friends Are Losers, Charlie Brown

Sex, drugs, and goth rock in Peanuts Land

Comments (0) By Clay McNear Thursday, Nov 15 2007

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One of the many charms of Charles Schulz's Peanuts gang is that they're ageless and timeless. Charlie Brown's the perpetual dweeb who wears the same clothes every day. (Either he has a closet full of the dorky ensembles or his wah-wah-wah Mom doesn't do laundry.) Lucy is a charming bully. Blanket-toting Linus is wise beyond his years. Snoopy is the immortal Everydog. Now imagine a world in which Charlie Brown and company grow up to become angst-ridden teens. Pig Pen's a homophobic germaphobe. Peppermint Patty and her loyal foot soldier Marcie are alcoholic, sex-fiend fashionistas. Lucy's in a mental institution. Linus is a drug addict. Charlie Brown's sister Sally is a goth chick. Snoopy died of rabies. This is the crux of playwright Bert V. Royal's "wildly unauthorized" Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, which debuted at the New York International Fringe Festival in ´04 and is being staged locally by Stray Cat Theatre. Though it sounds hilarious -- and it is, mostly -- Royal's also making a camouflaged statement about the seductive perils of young adulthood.
Thu., Nov. 15, 8 p.m.; Fri., Nov. 16, 8 p.m.; Sat., Nov. 17, 8 p.m., 2007