My Life As A DOG

ÎSylviaâ examines human nature
through a canine

By Ricardo Baca

Being the popular bitch around town isnât easy.

Just ask Sylvia.

ãI have to check my messages,ä the dog said, smiling smugly as she bent over to smell a fire hydrant.

Donât be afraid to laugh. Sylvia, A.R. Gurneyâs new comedy, has sold out an extended run at the Denver Performing Arts Complexâs Ricketson Theatre with the help of a multifaceted cast and great direction.

Everyone loves a good dog story, and this oneâs no different. Greg (Robert Westenberg) is having a mid-life crisis, and to cope with it, he finds Sylvia (Stephanie Cozart), a mutt of Labrador and poodle ancestry, in a park. She brings out the best of Greg because she is the ãonly thing real in his life.ä

And everything is hunky-dory ÷ for about five minutes.

Following in Classical play construction, Sylvia carries the element of great, intriguing conflict. Her name is Kate.

Gregâs wife, Kate (Annette Helde), is avidly against having a dog in their empty nest of a Manhattan apartment.
She thinks Sylvia is just a ãmale menopausal momentä for Greg and finally concedes to him keeping her for a few days (months).

Kateâs character, however, lacked real substance.  Helde played it as best she could.

Posters for the production feature an adorable black canine, but when the actors make their first entrance, it is Cozart wearing kneepads, a ragged brown sweater and a dog tag sporting her nomenclature: Sylvia.|

The foul-mouthed dog rips around the stage, barking, chewing slippers and sniffing crotches. And donât worry: The passionate leg-humping comes later.

ãIâm not in heat Greg,ä Sylvia says. ãI just feel like fucking, thatâs all. Fucky-fuck-fuck.ä

Jamie Horton, who played the spitting baseball fan Tom, the overly eccentric Phyllis and the hermaphroditic psychologist Leslie, generated interminable dialogue breaks because the audience was stricken by incurable fits of laughter.

In fact, Horton got so caught up in the moment, he broke character and started cracking up in the middle of a scene. ãI usually donât do that,ä he said after the show.
 

The script was crude, but funny. This is an adult comedy. Sylvia often goes rampant either toward a cat with hate or with lust toward Bowser, the neighborhood stud.

In an after-the-show talkback session, the players and director Randal Myler talked about the playâs evolution.
ãThe script said I was to knee Phyllis in the crotch, and it just didnât seem right,ä Cozart said. ãSo Randy just said, Îhump it.âä

The director laughed then admitted, ãThere were days when I thought I was directing a really bad porno movie ÷ only the lighting was better.ä