hi i'm carolyn and i'm carol and i teach drama and i teach english and we often get caught caught up in the drama of our drama yes today we're going to talk to you about a fantastic production that we saw at the kelsey theater produced by forte productions and it's a our gurneys sylvia and i and i have to say i read the play before we went to see it and i could not figure out how they were going to pull this off the the premise of the play is there is a you know a couple kate and greg who are you know in their i would say fifty's late late forty's early fifty's their children have gone off to college they have moved from the suburbs into the city and greg comes home one day with a dog and the idea itself is not that shocking but the fact that the dog is played by a woman and the dog talks through the whole show like the dog and greg are having this affair when i was reading it i couldn't really see how it was all going to get played out and then see in the production it  played out right and they are going most famous for love letters which is usually done with celebrities and their letters read back and forth and very lovely touching play about relationships so this was kind of different in terms of relationship it was it was a little dark i saw the side i was a little you know the who was the actress that played the played sylvia  mondo i couldn't i couldn't really see it and when the play was in production in new york sarah jessica parker had played that role that she did and i just still in my mind could not fathom how it was going to work out but then sylvia this actress convinced me that she was this dog yeah i thought she wouldn't excellent job of creating the dog you know when she would sit on the couch the way that she would sit when she would come up to him on his lap and you know put her head on the arm of the chair and then you know just when she would get excited and should move very quickly and in circles like if you've ever had a dog that's what a dog does so i thought she did such a lovely job of creating the energy that needed to to fulfill that character i thought that the the dan keys or i think his name is dan keyes or who played the three yard he was he was awesome right yeah he played those three roles little shop of ours does that too where they have an actor there's a few plays where they come in and they play those those cameo roles really quickly and i thought he did job he came in dressed in drag as young as old college friend write that sylvia actually makes start drinking again which was probably the funniest part of the show when the woman says to her just give me the whole than than it would have been right with without him and they were kind of coming in as the comic relief and right and i think that you know when we talk about this production we talk about sylvia and i see how nice you look and there was a moment groomed yes she did she got groove so i went and had my hair done at the blowout bar which which is so offensive to me on so many levels and it's not only the blowout bar it's called cherries blowout bar which i told the woman who was blown out my hair you need to change the name of this place because it could be construed as being something other than where you go get your hair done right well but your hair looks what part of what this play was really a vow well and which was you know his relationship because people when the play first came out were very offended that he was having a  door played by a woman right and i understand that i get that i get why there would be that feeling about that i didn't find it offensive i didn't either you know i really i really if i had to pick a character that identified with i really identify with kate in the in the show yes you know there were times in the show and i guess this attributes to the to the skill of the actor to right whalen who well are the guy that played greg kurt penny like there were times there were times that i just wanted to reach and slap him and say you know like just get over yourself already like but but that was the character and you were so they didn't feel what kind of that stereotypical midlife crisis that was going through and they live in the city so he's not buying a fast car right he's buying themselves a dog but you know right you know and he would be well he finds the dog he finds her she finds him where he is sort of you know the premise of the show as well and you know he doesn't like his job he doesn't like his boss you know he doesn't have any friends he you know his kids are calling him you know and there were times when i just wanted to say really great you know you're living in this great apartment in new york city how back in your life really be right well one of the things that i like about these kind of plays and this play in particular does it nicely is the ensemble i like ensemble show where you have this cast that's all working together there's not star kind of even though we know matthew broderick played greg right at one point and sarah jessica parker played sylvia in another proxy and but the idea that they're all working together to create kind of this  these relationships to tell the story of you know how this marriage is kind of falling apart and how they're looking for things to kind of replace he's looking he's looking for because because right and you know she she has a you know she is a teacher and she's working on this curriculum during teach shakespear to inner city kids right and you know she has found a place for herself she has these friends that you see she has this full calendar they talk about you know she says we don't have time for a dog we have you know we go to concerts with this group of friends that we go out to dinner with hired for a dog right neither i don't either we have a friend who just got a dog i don't know how she thinks she's got don't she doesn't have time for a dog dogs are work there are a lot of i don't think they're more work sometimes them children well sylvia certainly was she was got more work than yet ultra i do i did like the parts though  when she was chasing belzer yeah that whole scene where she's in heat yes ok and she goes out and maybe she should have gone to the blow up bar while she was in he right but you know that was funny to me that was the way they staged the park scene so that the park you know they're sitting on the set and the park is like out in the audi yeah so she runs all right oh you're kind of getting that sense that there's there's this dog park because dan kaiser's character tom says to him you don't give them a a a real name because that then you then you forget that they're a right and so that kind of became the premise that you know she's sylvia why she named silversea had a tag on her right she's sylvia so that began his sort of relationship with sylvia sylvia and the other thing that tom does is every time they run into each other in the park tom has another self help book yes right i'm reading this book or i'm reading that book and you know the reality is we don't none of us need those books to tell us how to live our life and and i and i think that that that was sort of a comment that gurney was trying to make too that we're always looking for some solution of how to make our lives better and really our lives are not that bad to begin with you know like we're always looking for these things to you know how can i be a better person well just be a better person and live the life that you have and that life is you know for most of us for most of us that life is pretty good and i thought that the pain at the set gray because dogs don't see color which i thought was a very great choice for them yes absolutely i think that gives you more of sylvia's perspective i thought the pace of the show was really nice i thought the actors work well together in terms of right interacting really look like i always tell my acting student you have to listen right and they don't always listen to each other they're just kind of right there and at the other person waiting for the line but i thought there was a lot of really fantastic the three of them blended together beautifully like i was i was not expecting that because you know the other music is kind of piped in right it's you know can music and then these and then they stand there and they have this really beautiful moment with the three of them together and and the fact that she comments at the end of each scene with a quote from shakespeare right which is kind of a kind of a theme throughout you know i was not with that gurney right now and that was his commentary on on on what's going on in the play right and you know there's there's this conversation that kate and greg have she's  gets this grant to go to london for six months and there's this conversation where he isn't sure he's going to go with her right you know he his conversation is i can't leave sylvia  and you know what i'm going to tell you i know carol is not an animal i am not an animal person and i have two cats at home and i get that carol like they're your babies i have children but my cat i might just i but you know i don't get the whole pet thing i know you don't like i just don't understand people's attachments to their pets i love my pets i'm not saying that but their pets and when it's time to go with their family and i think that's part of what this was you know is that they're there you're you know that they're it's unconditional love dogs ok i know you don't like dogs and cats but you know that i like them i just don't need unconditional love right so this man right greg is getting unconditional love until he has to walk or what or sylvia say until you have to walk around in the wintertime and then it's not going to be fun anymore no it's not right but the dog she she does she loves them they absolutely love them unconditionally his wife doesn't love him unconditionally and i think that's very telling but in the by the end of the play kate has sort of has sort of accepted sylvia i don't know i don't want to say she cat well i could live with them the cat however likes to hang out with him because i think the cat finn wants my husband to like him more as the cats just irritate him so i think with sylvia  and and and kate relationship there some of that like she was well katie's kate is jealous of the dog of course right i mean it it's clear that she's jealous of the dog and there in some ways it's clear that sylvia is jealous of kate right right and so you know greg kind of tries to navigate back and forth and back and forth and back and forth but i there were there were moments when i was laughing out loud r there were moments like i said when i you know i felt really bad for kate i did you know like when she's trying to move on with her life and you know she's taking care of kids and and done this and now she has this opportunity to be something and he's right and but i can't go with you you know she's having to choose between her husband and her and this dream her dream because that's really what it is her husband and her dreams you know i felt bad for her and there were times when i really wanted to just grab greg and shake him and say get over yourself please it's not that important your life isn't that bad and i think that that's what gordie wanted us to kind of come away with right really interesting play and commentary who worked her trying to figure out their life and and my interpretation of the play was that the women are much better at figuring it out than the men in the end then greg was i don't want to say men generally but kate was better at figuring it out than greg was right at peter and i understand people didn't like the idea of oh a woman being associated with us dog i get that but i but it was actually pretty strong character right and  i that was not offensive to me in any way and i you know i could understand why somebody might say it was offensive but for me that was not that was not offensive in any way well we have to thank greensleeves y