What's in a title?

If it’s true that you can’t judge a book by its cover, it is equally true that you can’t judge a play by its title. Last night I attended a play at The Next Stage area of GEVA entitled Sylvia. I was expecting a play about Sylvia Plath; instead, Sylvia was the name of a stray dog that had been “found” by a fifty-something man who was entering his male “menopause”.
The play was presented by Out of Pocket Productions, and the proceeds will be donated to Lollypop Farm/The Humane Society of Rochester. The first inkling I had that I was in for a surprise was the cover of the program which pictured a scraggly dog in a dog house, looking pleadingly at the camera, and the bone that was used for the ‘I’ in Sylvia. Inside, I saw unfamiliar names for the characters: Greg, Kate, and “Tom, Phyllis, and Leslie” – three characters played by one actor.
On stage were minimal props - a couch, a coffee table, an end table, a chair, and a desk. On the coffee table were books on art and art history. As the lights rise, a young woman, perhaps in her early twenties, comes into the room, hopping and cavorting. This is Sylvia, a puppy. As we are introduced to Greg, the fifty something man, he is conversing with Sylvia. She hops around, jumps on his lap and says “I love you, you are my god”. Meanwhile he pats her on top of the head “I love you too. But you should sit on the floor.” When Greg takes her to the dog park later in the play, it is revealed by Tom, a fellow dog owner and book reading expert on dog ownership, that she has yet to go into heat for the first time before she can be spayed.
“Female dogs should not be spayed until after their first time in heat. Experts say that they should have the experience of being a “woman” at least once in their life.”
The idea of Sylvia, a young puppy, played by a young woman, Makes it very difficult for the “temporary suspension of disbelief “ that is necessary for this play to succeed. More so when Sylvia has various dresses and costumes, from holey jeans to a Catholic schoolgirl outfit (what she is wearing when she first experiences her “womanhood” with “Bowser”). When Kate, Greg’s wife, enters the action and meets Sylvia for the first time, there is instant antipathy. All three are talking as if they are having a human conversation. As an example, Kate tells to Sylvia she likes dogs, but she just doesn’t want Sylvia and she will have to go. To which Sylvia replies, with a coquettish twist of her hips and a evil seductive smile says in reply, that since she is now Greg’s love, perhaps it is Kate who will have to leave.
The play has two acts, and the first act ends when Kate receives a grant to travel to England, and Greg can go, but Sylvia cannot. Greg says that he will stay with Sylvia, and Kate can go alone. The second act opens with Greg and Kate seeing a relationship counselor named Leslie, who is completely androgynous, in dress, name, and language. This same actor plays Tom, Greg’s male friend at the dog park and Kate’s socialite friend and fellow Vassar graduate Phyllis. Leslie’s advice to Kate, after talking with Greg, is to “Divorce him and take everything he’s got, then shoot Sylvia “…right between the eyes.”
Overall, this play was very hilarious, and very sublime with its dual possibility of a man, entering his “age of disillusionment”, begins an affair with a younger woman and pushes aside his wife of 22 years and the mother of his children. The play was so entertaining that within the first two or three minutes, I was no longer disappointed that this play was not about Sylvia Plath and her husband.
Or maybe it was.
A few other production notes: During the intermission, the stage was changed slightly – the art and art history books were substituted with dog behavior books, there was now a picture of Sylvia on the end table, and there were chew toys on the couch and on the floor. Also, in the notes for costumes, it says “The Cast”, implying that these characters, playing real people, chose their own clothes. The play itself was written by A.R. Gurney, who attended the Yale School of Drama, and has taught in the M.I.T. Humanities Department. The play will again be on stage September 2 – 5, 2010 at the Next Stage.