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Doggone good

DOG SEES GOD: CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE BLOCKHEAD by Bert V. Royal, directed by Lezlie Wade. At Six Degrees (2335 Yonge Street). To April 4. $26.50-$66.50. 1-888-222-6608. See listing. Rating: NNN


Wanna hear Charlie Brown grouse about smoking weed and getting head? The off-Broadway hit Dog Sees God (receiving its Canadian premiere, and featuring cast members from Degrassi: The Next Generation, and Instant Star) imagines the characters of Charles Schultz’s classic comic strip Peanuts as troubled adolescents dealing with a seemingly-endless parade of hot-button issues.

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The plot finds the teenaged Charlie (here called “CB” to avoid copyright issues) emotionally traumatized after having Snoopy euthanized, and suffering from a by-the-numbers, existential, “what-does-it-all-mean?” crisis.

In and around happeningstheir high school, the teen versions of the Peanuts cast confront or embody the usual teen-drama touchstones. Drug addiction, promiscuity, bulimia, depression, homophobia, abortion, alcoholism, school shootings and suicide all get exhaustive play here. Few punches are pulled, but the cast sometimes struggles to avoid slipping into After School Special levels of corniness.

While the show begins with CB’s clichéd search for the meaning of life, the play shakes off its liberal-progressive morality play exterior, and gets far more interesting, when CB (Jake Epstein) unexpectedly locks lips with the piano-plunking outcast Beethoven (Ben Lewis). Their sexual experimentation sets off a firestorm of controversy, mainly fuelled by CB’s BFF, Matt (Mike Lobel), a homophobic, coke-addicted version of Pig-Pen.

The strongest member of the mostly-solid, star-studded cast, Lobel continues his bad-boy streak from Degrassi, once again playing the sex-obsessed, jacked-up hot-head role frighteningly well.

Once the comic novelty of potty-mouthed Peanuts wears off, the plot surrounding CB’s grapple with sexual identity pretty much carries the show. Despite a drawn-out and sappy conclusion, this show functions as a good issue-forcer for high school audiences, and is probably the best show targeting teens playing in Toronto.

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