Dog Sees God

*note: I stopped posting blog posts in here bc they were basically taking over my blog, but there are still really awesome books that I want to talk about and so I decided that books I rated five stars via goodreads are worthy enough to make it to my blog

I make valiant efforts to rereads things that are my favorite works of literature at least once per year. As Dog Sees God lands in my rank for my favorite play, of course it is one of those things I endevour to reread. Let's get a little background history, I first read Dog Sees God my senior year of high school, nearly three years ago, after picking it up in the stores of random assorted plays on the shelves of the drama room. I instantly fell in love with it the moment I read it and pulled my two friends in it for a ride. We convinced our teacher to do a cold reading outlloud in class and got into some serious trouble because we severly underestimated how people would responsd to all the cursing and sexual innuendos in it. That little tussle only made me love it even more, it became like a bby to me. Something I wanted despretly to defend.

Dog Sees God : Confessions of Teenage Blockhead is a dark comedy that follows the life of a teenage 'blockhead' called CB. All the characters, the events, and themes suggest that these characters are the characters of Charlie Brown, but all grown up. In my opinion this concept is brilliantly done. You have these distinctive characters from childhood, things mostly associated with holidays like Halloween or Christmas. Regarless of how you found yourself in the world of Charlie Brown there is sucha stark contrast here in the play. The characters,the language, the scenes are so breath takingly real. And also painful. It's kind of a hard thing to grasp, that these happy go lucky hcaracters you watched dance around the screen are thrust into this world that is actually real, a world that is fucked up, that bad things happen in. And that's the beauty of it, it's in this juxtapostioned place that shows you how our world is compared to the made up ones we watched on tv screens at a young age.

The play opens w/ CB (Charlie Brown) writing a letter to his penpal, telling of the death of his dog, his dog who killed his little bird of a friend before having to be put down himself. He asks his penpal, do you think God goes to heavan? And it is this question that resides in his mind through the whole show. This question is the driving background of the whole story. Bert V. Royal introduces the rest of the cast throughout the play, doing a brilliant job of adapting them to their lives. These children have grown up and things have happened to them. Marcy and PepperMint Patty are accused of being lesbians and spike their milk cartons w/ alchohol.Pig Pen is a germaphone and in general, a douchebag. Linus lives off pot, he smoked his blanket to 'become one' with it. Sally undergoes a daily identity crisis. All of them become character types, people that we can see or can almost see in everyday life. They are more than just cartoon characters in this way, they become a representation of ourselves, or the good, bad, and absolutely hilarious things of life.

I won't say much more, because I really could go one forever, but at this point I'm trying my best to keep spoilery free. But I will say this, the stroy is stunning. Bert V. Royal is so clever, so in touch with making a story that holds so much meaning with just recogonizable characters milling along in life. I laughed my head off while reading this, I sobbed my eyes out while reading it. It was beautifula nd wicked and such a great story that when I first read it, three years ago, I had to sit there when I was finished and just be there. I had to just exist, I had to keep myself to graps by the qualms of reality. Okay, maybe I'm overreacting, here, maybe just a bit. But you have to understand. I love this play. And I think I'll continue to love it.

Fin.
-Keshia