Theater gone gloriously to the dogs Theater gone gloriously to the dogs (January 25, 2002)

Palo Alto Players presents a fetching comedy about man's best friend

by Laura Reiley

To Greg, she represents unconditional love. To Kate, unremitting hairballs. An age-old story, it's the difference between a man's love of his dog and his wife's love of her living-room upholstery. In this case, the canine interloper in question is Sylvia, a headstrong New York street pooch who lends her name to the play that graces the Lucie Stern Theater through Feb. 3.

Andy Rooney once said, "If dogs could talk it would take a lot of the fun out of owning one." In "Sylvia," nothing could be further from the truth. Both dog (channeled miraculously by Elisa Pluhar) and play are howlingly funny, a real high-water mark in Palo Alto Players' 71st season. Sylvia talks, quotes Homer, sings Cole Porter and generally ransacks the lives of her new middle-aged owners.

The play, written by A.R. Gurney (author of "The Dining Room," "Love Letters" and "Labor Day," among others), goes like this: Greg and Kate, their children grown, move to Manhattan. Not wallowing in her empty nest, Kate blossoms as a teacher of Shakespeare to inner-city kids. Greg, on the other hand, finds his job as a currency trader bereft of meaning ("My boss wants me to learn money markets...there's nothing to touch, nothing to see, nothing to get a purchase on."). One fall day in Central Park, Greg finds Sylvia, a spunky stray who demands his love. He takes her home and nothing is ever the same.

With such a setup, there's a lot of room for saccharine dialogue and simpering inter-species mooniness, but "Sylvia" never devolves to this. Directed by David Sikula, the play is swift, honest and genuinely touching. At the same time, the play's four actors bring hilarious energy and quirky personality to each role.

Pluhar, as Sylvia, runs through the requisite leg-humping and butt-sniffing gags (sidling over to a fire hydrant for a sniff, she tells Greg, "I've got to check my messages"), but in a million other ways she becomes a living, shedding dog you can believe in. She's got it all: the goofy, tongue-lolling adoration, the exuberant pulling against the leash, the mortified I-can't-believe-I-made-that-puddle hangdog look, and the circling before sitting down. She even wears the post-surgery cone of shame just right.

In the same way, Greg, played by Ken Czworniak, is a slightly rumpled, khaki-wearing man who has palpably lost his way. His love of his dog may seem universal, but his particular brand of befuddlement and dawning conviction are all his own. He stubbornly eschews his old bourgeois convictions in favor of taking time to smell the roses.

And his wife doesn't get it. Kate is played beautifully by Jane Bement Geesman, who never lets it become a battle of two bitches, only one canine. We feel sympathy for Kate as the bystander to her husband's sudden midlife passion. We witness her pain as a longtime mate and her growing fear of losing her spouse to an obsession she doesn't understand. Kate's not a persnickety cat person with an aversion to drool; she is fighting this four-legged adversary for her life.

And the fourth player, Jonathan Ferro, serves hilarious triple duty. As Tom, he is an eerily intense dog-lover in the park (he lives through his dog Bowser, the park's resident gigolo); as Phyllis he plays a double entendre-wielding college friend of Kate's, a high society Republican matron with a wicked sense of humor; and finally, as Leslie, he serves as a psychologist who lets patients decide his/her gender.

From beginning to final curtain, "Sylvia" is a joy to watch, with a tidy, appealing set designed by Ron Gasparinetti, a nostalgic, clarinet-heavy soundtrack designed by Jonathan Davis and a pedigree cast expertly led through their paces by director Sikula. The cast helps us to see, as James Thurber said, "The dog has got more fun out of man than man has got out of the dog, for man is the more laughable of the two animals."

What: "Sylvia," presented by Palo Alto Players

Where: Lucie Stern Theater, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto

When: Through Feb. 3. Show times are 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 3.

Cost: Tickets are $20 for Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday performances; $24 for Friday and Saturday evenings. Students and seniors receive a $3 discount for Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday performances.

Info: Call (650) 329-0891 or visit www.paplayers.org.