Brookings: Male kiss receives raves at SDSU

by Lawrence Novotny

Everyone is familiar with Charlie Brown and his gang. This cast of lovable characters was made popular by Charles Schultz in his comic strip Peanuts and the TV Christmas show. There is now a new version -- a theatre play written by gay playwright Bert V. Royal called Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead. This play was performed as part of South Dakota State University's Experimental Theatre on April 27-29.
Royal's play which debuted in 2004 is an "unauthorized parody" of the Peanuts gang. Royal has changed the names of the characters probably to prevent copyright infringement.
In Dog Sees God the gang are now high school teenagers trying to be cool (peppering their language with 4-letter words). C.B. (Charlie Brown) is in mourning since his dog became rabid and was euthanized. C.B. is now asking his friends if there is life after death but his friends are to occupied with there own issues.
C.B.'s sister (Sally) is bouncing from pagan to Goth. The philosopher turned Buddhist Van (Linus) has replaced his security blanket (he smoked it) with pot. Van's sister (Lucy) is still practicing psychoanalysis but in a new location. Marcy (Marcie) and Tricia (Peppermint Patty) are now slutty cheerleaders who spike their lunch milk cartons with booze. Matt (the former dirt bag Pig-Pen) is a germ-phobic neat-freak homophobe who is obsessed with sex.
The play begins on a humorous note but becomes serious when the piano playing Beethoven (Schroeder) appears. The sexually questioning Beethoven is completely ostracized by the rest of the gang because he was raped by his dad. The play ends with the gang trying to rationalize Beethoven's suicide after he was gay bashed.
The highlight of the play was the male-male kiss which was very well received by a full audience in the 200-seat studio theatre.
One of the actors said afterwards they were a little apprehensive at first because they did not know how the audience would respond. On opening night several people walked out. On the third and final night, the actors had to hold the lip-lock for at least a minute while the audience cheered them on!
SDSU Experimental Theatre and the actors are to be complemented for taking on the timely and controversial topics of bullying, gay bashing, seeking one's identity, suicide, drugs, and child abuse. The audience left with much to ponder. Thanks, SDSU theatre gang for a performance very well done.