Dog is a lot more than man’s best friend in A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia, a canine comedy now getting laughs — or is it barks? — at the Odyssey Theater. The visiting production is directed by Tanna Frederick, who won plaudits five years ago for her work as actress in the same play, which ran for a year at Edgemar Center for the Arts and at Sierra Madre Playhouse. Frederick also stars in the current version of Sylvia. A commercial hit at many other theaters across the country ever since it debuted in 1995, Sylvia exploits its one-joke set-up expertly, using a combination of physical comedy, satire, and anthropomorphism to connect with its audience. Actresses love to play the dog named Sylvia, as evidenced by the relish with which Frederick attacks her role. Decked out in one outrageous dog/lady costume after another, Frederick has a ball imitating a mutt who talks, jokes, sings rock songs, sniffs butts and humps peoples’ legs when she isn’t cuddling up on a couch with Greg (the expert farceur Stephen Howard). A wealthy investment banker, Greg brings home the stray dog Sylvia, much to the dismay of his elegant wife Kate (strongly played by Beege Barkette), who does not want her new life as a teacher deflected by the needs of this cute but irritating animal (who keeps jumping up and down on her fancy white sofa). Greg is so smitten with Sylvia that he doesn’t even mind it when Sylvia pees on the floor. His love for her becomes so extreme that it eventually begins to affect his marriage and his job. It drives Kate to drink and to thoughts of mutt murder. The Sylvia/Kate/Greg love triangle is joined by Matthew Marcy, who plays three different roles: a hulking alpha-male owner of an alpha dog; Kate’s bibulous girlfriend, Phyllis; and an androgynous shrink, Leslie, who tries to cure Greg of his obsessive love for a Tennessee Williams-spouting four-legged creature in a tutu. The Odyssey production features a handsome set by Mark Kanieff and distinctive lighting effects by Derrick McDaniel. But above all, it’s the wonderful comedic work by Tanna Frederick that helps this production of Sylvia to find its wings and fly.
