“Sylvia,” a play that explores the bizarre love interest between a middle-aged married man and his newly found dog and best pal, opens this weekend at the Arena Theatre in the Auditorium basement.
The play by A.R. Gurney is set in New York City, where a married couple, Greg and Kate, played by theater senior John P. Sundholm and theater junior Emily Mickelson, have settled after their long stint of suburban kid-raising.
“The kids are away at college, and their marriage is at a bit of a crisis point,” said director Marcus Olson, head of acting in the MSU Department of Theatre.
“They’re experiencing some empty nest syndrome.”
While taking a long lunch one day, Greg comes across Sylvia, a half Labrador, half poodle mutt played by theater freshman Sarah Faix. He rescues her, or perhaps she rescues him.
The catch? Sylvia is a walking, talking, singing dog who will now unconditionally love Greg and shake up his settled New York life with his wife.
“Greg attaches himself to this dog, and he suddenly obsesses with her,” Olson said. “The wife is extremely jealous - she’s starting a second career, she’s raised kids and now she wants to be a teacher.
“She’s got this freedom living in Manhattan, and the dog is a responsibility she just doesn’t want.”
Sylvia inspires Greg to absorb life in a way he hasn’t done in years, unnerving Kate in the process, and the couple wages finicky battle after battle over the mutt.
But the show isn’t just about the married couple\'s arguments as to whether Sylvia can sit on the couch.
Besides the fact that Sylvia is a dog with very human characteristics, the play offers several other comic ingredients in the form of cartoon-like characters.
Theater junior R.J. Mahaney will play Tom, English senior Michael Scott Hunter will play the therapist, Leslie, and theater senior Lindsey Stakoe will play Phyllis.
“Those three characters are on completely different levels than Greg, Sylvia and Kate,” said Hunter, whose character, Leslie, is an ambiguously gendered, kooky therapist.
“They are caricatures of people. Phyllis is a caricature of a rich society woman, and Tom is a macho, buddy-buddy guy with a macho dog,” he said.
Along with the theme of picking up strays and Greg’s “animal gene fix” that Olson described is a collaboration between the Capital Area Humane Society and the MSU Department of Theatre.
Volunteers from the humane society will bring several animals to the Arena Theatre lobby prior to each showing of the production, as well as information about the organization and its programs.
Anyone who adopts an animal form the humane society through March 25, 2001 will receive a coupon for $1 off the price of admission to the show.
Sylvia will run at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and 22, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and March 23 and 24 and 2 p.m. March 25.
All shows are in the Arena Theatre in the basement of the Auditorium Building. Tickets are $5 and will be available only at the door, beginning one hour before each performance. Some language in Sylvia may not be appropriate for younger viewers.
