Review: A Dog's Life Leads to Love at TAP'S Irresistible SYLVIA

The connection between man/woman and beast, especially a domesticated beast, can be complicated. Ask a dog or cat owner to describe their relationship and the pets often acquire human qualities, they are usually loved beyond what anyone might expect, and profoundly impact the lives of their owners .Stage Door Theatre Company expounds on that devotion in their recent comedy Sylvia at Sturgeon Bay's Third Avenue Playhouse (TAP).

A.R. Gurney, author of the popular Love Letters, constructs his story by placing two empty nesters Greg and Kate, who recently moved to New Yoirk City after their children leave for college, in a small apartment. Whle traversing this new phase in life, Greg runs across an abandoned dog in the park with ony a tag around her neck stating the dog's name is Sylvia---and he's entirely smitten with this disheveled mutt. Although his wife Kate recently began a teaching position after acquirng her Masters Degree, she immediately orders Sylvia to be gone, out of the house and the conflict over whether Sylvia stays or goes ensues.

In Gurney's part-fantasy 1995 play, an actual woman inhabits the dog Sylvia. Katherine Duffy enthusiastically embraces her inner canine spirit with exhurberant je nais sais quois. While she becomes a labrador-French poodle mix, her personality changes throughout the performance, asking to be petted or climbing on couches, as she grows more womanly the longer she stays with Greg and Kate. All the while Greg dotes on her as if she were a real woman, elevating Kate's initial distress.

Alan Kopischke and debuting at Stage Door Theatre Jacque Troy cohabitate the apartment on stage playing Greg and Kate, the couple renogtiating their long term marriage. The more successful teacher Kate becomes, the more disenchanted Greg finds his own career. Kopischke appears completely enarmored by Slyvia, while Troy presents a sophisticated Kate wishing for more romance than dog hiar on her new, NYC couch. Where is Sylvia's place, a dog's place, in life?

Also throughout this production, Ryan Patrick Shaw enchants the audience with three characters: Tom, a fellow dog owner who Greg meets at the park. Syliva adores Tom's dog Bowser, which also creates some humorous experiences when living a dog's life. Then Shaw alternately inhabits, Phyllis, Kate's high society friend, and Leslie, an androgynous couple's therapist. Comedy abounds in Shaw's portrayal of these three minor characters.

At the heart of the doggy dilemma. in one poignant scene on the play, Kate leaves for a conference, and Greg leaves Sylvia at the apartment to take Kate to the airport. Each character sings a song made famous by Ella Fitzgerald, "Everytime I say goodbye... I die a little, " which underscores the delicate domesticated beast-to-human relationship, the deep connection these three living creatures sense, and forms a triangle on the stage with Sylvia in the middle. Robert Boles directs the production centered on the believability of this triangle between two humans and a dog that allows Duffy's Sylvia to shine as her own distinct personality instead of merely being a comic prop or a figment of Greg's imagination.

Syliva ultimately grows more beautiful, signified by the garments she changes into, beginning from jeans and tousled hair, to a gorgeous black dress and stillettos, because she is loved. A premise that humans might learn from their pets, because being loved unconditionally encourages anyone to become more beautiful. When that love is cherished and shared by two people instead of rejected, the love then grows, as it does reluctantly between Greg and Sylvia in the play. Today, more scientific research than ever before validates that pets provide increasing physical and psychological benefits to children and adults even with the inherent inconveniences pets can incur, including the ever-present dog/cat hair, constant feeding, walking, and veternarian bills

Think about sharing a dog or cat in inevitable, unconditional love with someone else. A huge, flluffy white dog soft as duck down and the owner comes to mind, or conjure another canine in the imagination. Then laugh at TAP's irresitible Sylvia, and remember a special, irreplacable pet who came with charm and soulful eyes unexpectedly to life's door and brought joy---A dog that might recall what the inimitable creator of Charlie Brown Charles Schultz said in his book: "Happiness is a warm puppy."

Stage Door Theatre Company presents Sylvia at Sturgeon Bay's Thrid Avenue Playhouse, at 239 North Thrid Avenue through September 12. For information or tickets, please call: 920.743.1760 or www.thirdavenueplayhouse.com

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