Playwright A.R. Gurney's, "Sylvia," is really quite simple: a man finds a stray dog and brings it home, where his love for the dog gets in the way of his love for his wife. A man plays the husband. A woman plays the wife. A woman plays the dog. A man who plays a man in a supporting role also plays a woman and a therapist who could be either a man or a woman. It's the simplest twists on tradition that make for really entertaining comedy. Sunset Playhouse's production of Gurney's simple little comedy is one of the most satisfying things they've had onstage in a very long time.
Glen A. Villa plays Greg, a man who works in business. With his business getting increasingly abstract, he finds the need to get back in touch with the simpler things. When he finds a stray dog named Sylvia, he sees in it the opportunity to refresh himself on the basics of nature and instinct. Villa might've done something interesting with this aspect of the character, but Gurney never attempts to explore any of the themes in the play with that much depth. "Sylvia," is a light comedy and Villa ends-up playing the role of the serious counterpart to the comedic dog.
Marilou Farina Davido has the honor of playing the dog Sylvia. While not every actress would necessarily leap at the chance to play a dog, the role is really written to be a lot of fun. Davido brilliantly captures the fun of the role, conveying it to the audience with a respectable amount of poise for any actress in a title role. The comedy of watching a stray female dog talk about all of those things that a stray female dog would talk about in clear, simple English is every bit as simple as it sounds, but somehow Gurney manages to keep it fresh and interesting for the entire length of the play.
Mary Rynders plays Greg's wife Kate. While Kate's dislike of Sylvia is a central conflict, most of her role in the story plays-out as a subplot. Rynders carries out the role competently, with all the right inflection, pauses and stresses that hold-up her end of the comedy, but it's a bit disappointing that Gurney didn't give the role a bit more depth.
Rounding out the cast, Matthew J. Patten plays three different roles. Though he's shown-up at the Sunset Playhouse before, Patten is a real surprise here. His first role is that of Tom: a dog owner Greg commiserates with in the park as his dog Bowser plays with Sylvia. Patten switches from Tom's working-class, philosophical, well-educated New York accent to a cold, upper-class woman in the role of Kate's friend Phyllis. The transformation gets a bit strange when he's playing the gender-ambiguous therapist Leslie, but Patten's impressive comic talent holds the three roles together quite well without any significant overlap.
Director Bryce Lord has managed to juggle the energy of the production quite well. There's enough in the dialogue and framing of the story to suggest that Gurney was going for a little bit more than light comedy with "Sylvia," but the script's strengths really lie in casual humor. Lord seems to have understood that, as the production seems to focus on the surface-level nature of the script. It's fun to watch a bunch of people onstage pretending an attractive, young woman is a stray dog. It's the simplest things that make for entertaining comedy.
The Sunset Playhouse's production of "Sylvia" runs now through Jan. 29. Tickets are $16 and can be purchased by calling the ticket office at (262) 782-4430.
