For Colorado Mesa University’s production Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, the experimental theater in The Moss Performing Arts Center was set up with the stage in the middle and the audience surrounding the area on three of the four sides. It was a small theater for a small production with a small cast.
Most of what took place in the play was left mainly to the imagination, as the set consisted of a dog house, a piano, a table and chairs (which frequently got thrown around). The minimal set was acceptable because there’s nothing too far-fetched to imagine. The play took place in a realistic fiction setting and was very easy to follow.
However — seriously — the play was raunchy.
Dog Sees God dealt with topics of high controversy and characters of extreme dislikability. It dove deep into subjects that are extremely sensitive to many people in the world, and at the end of the day, it wasn’t easy to watch. It didn’t paint a pretty picture of our world and while it was an attempt at brutal honesty, it wasn’t completely accurate to the way it really is to be a teenager these days.
Parts of the play were touching and other parts held powerful messages and relatable content to all those who remember their teenage years with mixed emotions. Many of the parts were good. A few (not many) were a little thought inducing. Other parts were more questionable.
If there was anything off about the play, it’s the fact that the activities portrayed by these teenagers leaned heavily to the degenerate and irresponsible side. Not a single one them was remotely respectable, and many of them were just unbelievable. This could be chalked up to exaggeration — making the characters seem comedically evil — but the play had a serious and somber enough tone that I couldn’t help but feel like these inaccuracies were accidental.
The only almost-spoiler was revealed at the very beginning of the play and may clear up a misconception: Snoopy was dead. There was no dog here, and at first, that seemed like it may be the point: Charlie Brown missed his dog. This was, in fact, not the point, and as soon as it stopped seeming to be the point, that’s when things turned wild.
While I was not personally offended by the contents of Dog Sees God, I felt like the subject was something of an agenda that was sneakily slipped in, and I do think it felt a little cheap. Of course, a slightly extended synopsis of the play from online should better prepare a person, but seeing as how I didn’t look one up, the plot twist was shocking but didn’t quite seem to fit.
One appreciable thing about the end of the play was the open-ended style. It didn’t end happily, but it didn’t end as sadly as it could have. The ending at least felt natural.
3 stars out of 5.
I personally don’t believe that any of the show was inaccurate. I knew kids in MIDDLE school who were having sex and getting pregnant. One of the kids in my class did commit suicide at the end of our eighth grade year and to this day I still wonder if anything I could have done would have eased their pain. We weren’t close, but it’s a sad story that I wish had turned out differently. Just a few months ago my thirteen year old sister showed me a Snapchat of a girl in HER eighth grade class drinking vodka. Just because you don’t take part in something or don’t see it happen, doesn’t mean that it simply doesn’t exist. If these are the things happening before high school then try to imagine what happens when they get to high school. I truly believe you completely missed the point of the show and I’m sorry you did. It was a beautiful exploration of not only the trials of people living in the LGBTQ+ community but it also lent a perspective into mental illness and severe bullying as well as suicide. These things don’t get talked about a lot, so if we have the platform to start a conversation then you bet we’re going to. I personally know the cast and crew and can tell you that some of them have been through or been affected by some of the themes from the show in their actual lives. So they know what they’re talking about. I hope you consider revisiting this show at some point in the future, because it has a lot to offer.