Sylvia

Next Act Theater does a terrific job in presenting a smart and funny production of A.R. Gurney’s comedy, Sylvia.In essence, the play is about the marital strife that results when the husband returns home from New York’s Central Park with a stray dog. The dog’s arrival brings out tensions that this middle-aged couple thought they had conquered through 22 years of marriage. Apparently not.

Gurney’s play debuted at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 1995. The key to a successful production of Sylvia may be in the casting, as suggested by the well-known actors who appeared in original production. These included Sarah Jessica Parker, Blythe Danner and Charles Kimbrough.

In the Next Act production, the producing artistic director, David Cecsarini, plays Greg, the husband. One guesses he probably plays this role a bit looser than the buttoned-up Charles Kimbrough. In any case, Greg is a corporate honcho who has become bored with his job. His wife, whose career is on the assent, is disturbed by the changes she sees in her husband. Give up his job? What about the mortgage? What about the kids’ college tuition? Unfazed by these concerns, Greg is more interested in Sylvia, a raggedy mutt he picked up during an afternoon walk in Central Park. His bonding with Sylvia grows deeper by the day, despite his wife’s reasonable objections, such as the reality of keeping a dog in a New York apartment.

As demanded by the script, Sylvia is played by an actor, not a dog. In this case, it’s the sometimes bouncy, sometimes seductive Georgina McKee. She is much younger than Kate, the wife.

Now, the feminist side of this reviewer admits to being a bit rankled about “a girlfriend” (as Sylvia most definitely is, in every way but sexual) being played as a dog. Sylvia is a talking dog. She openly admits to thinking of Greg as a god. Her sole desire is to please him. No wonder Greg is so crazy about her! Wearing knee pads, McKee actually frolics in the apartment and otherwise behaves like a dog. (Dog lovers will adore the fact that this play acts out their fantasy of actually communicating with their beloved animal.)

In stark contrast to the fetching Sylvia, poor Kate dresses in a mannish fashion. She has short-clipped hair and wears a suit to work. (The audience basically sees her either coming from or going to her job.) Finally freed from the commitments of raising children, she had been looking forward to spending quality time with Greg. That is, until Sylvia arrives. Not surprisingly, the two women eventually go eye-to-eye with one another. Who will win Greg’s affection?

At one point, Sylvia trades her furry sweater and jeans for a “hot” black dress. She knows she has Greg in the palm of her paw. Kate, meanwhile, uses other devices. She receives a six-month grant to England. Greg is delighted at first – until he learns that foreign dogs are kept in quarantine for six months. Kate thinks she has won the battle – or has she?

Gurney peppers his play with clever one-liners and delightful plays on words. But in essence, he uses the play’s situation as a catalyst for exploring various dimensions of human relationships. This goes a step further with the introduction of a fourth character who appears in multiple roles: a man, a woman and a psychotherapist of unknown gender. All of these roles are played to perfection by Ryan Schabach. Gurney rewards this character with some of the funniest lines in the play. Although Schabach shines in all of his incarnations, he is perhaps the best as Tom, another dog owner who Greg meets in the park. Unlike the corporate-minded Greg, Tom is a blue-collar guy. He seems to have quite a handle on man-dog relationships. Tom quotes some hilarious titles of (fictitious) books he has read on the subject.

In his final scene, Tom announces that he and his wife have decided to split. This news gives Greg something to chew on as he contemplates his own future. The talented Gurney keeps the ending dangling just out of reach until almost the very end of the play.

As typical with Next Act shows, sets are kept to a minimum. However, the New York apartment in this production is very attractively – if sparsely – furnished. Costumes effectively define the characters.