Last night, I was an invited guest to see Absolutely Filthy, a full length play parodying Peanuts currently in its initial run being staged at the Sacred Fools Theater in Los Angeles. Built from material workshopped as part of the Sacred Fools’s weekly late night “Serial Killers” project, this play takes a look at the Peanuts gang later in their lives, all grown up and with their character attributes being subjected to the more adult world. While that’s definitely a style of Peanuts parody that has been done repeatedly and has gotten tiresome, this play doesn’t stick solely or even primarily with the shock value to be had from doing so, but rather focuses on saying not only something larger about some of the characters, but to have its own message that derives from what it is saying.

The story focuses on Pig-Pen, listed in the cast list as “The Mess”, which describes his character in more ways then one. Where most of the characters have grown to some form of success, Pig-Pen’s path has gone the other way, leaving him a destitute and sanity-challenged street person. The role is filled quite ably by the playwright Brendan Hunt, who brings a full energy to the character… one which needs energy to be performed because Pig-Pen’s dust cloud is indicated by a dirty hula-hoop being kept in constant motion, an effort which merely punctuates the characters pointed retorts to the other characters. (Also, I suspect, an effort which comes in handy for the actor in another way, as hooping throughout the two hour play each night probably keeps him physically tight… and most actors who have a nude scene, as this one does, like to make sure they’re looking their best when they do.) The occasion is Charlie Brown’s funeral, which is bringing Pig-Pen back into contact with his childhood chums for the first time since college, and the story comes from their reaction to him and from his counterreaction, all of which lend to the show’s central question of acceptance and foregiveness.

Is the play’s take on the Peanuts characters accurate? In some cases, I’d say “yes” (Schroeder (Curt Bonnem), who has taken his talents and become a successful popstar, for example); in other cases I’d say “no” (and that includes the central conceit, as Pig-Pen was always the character who was most comfortable with who he was), but part of that is just the nitpicking of a Schulz specialist and more importantly that doesn’t matter. What matters is that Hunt has taken his views of the characters, expanded on them, and built something much more full from it. It may not be fully correct, but it is  fully legitimate.

All that talk of a larger purpose may make it sound like this isn’t filled with quick cheap little jokes about the characters, but it is of course, many of them quite funny. The actors working under director Jeremy Aldridge often do a fine job of capturing the kids as grown-ups. In some cases, that seems pretty easy – Lucy can be captured largely by being loud (although that is served quite well by Anna Douglas, who treats the character of the sort of type-A businesswoman that Catherine Zeta Jones might’ve played on film) – but is more impressive when Linus (Robbie Winston) is captured by how he is quiet. Sometimes there just isn’t much inherent in the character to draw on; Schulz never really invested Franklin with the sort of fully fleshing out that other characters got, although KJ Middlebrooks certainly brings a full sense to the character as Hunt wrote him, and is a strong presence on the stage.

I tend to judge Peanuts-as-adults parodies quickly on one criterion: does it cast the Peppermint Patty and Marcie relationship as a lesbian one? And while the answer is yes, I will credit the show for making the situation there more complex than just that, more than just ha-ha, the tomboy and her friend were lezbos material that underlies most such takes.

The work is not flawless. It seems to lose focus and suffer most of the time that a character not derived from Peanuts is involved, whether that is the people of the neighborhood like a priest or a policemen, or whether it’s parodies of characters from other strips (which also faced the problem of less audience recognition; in general, characters from Family Circus or Bud Blake’s Tiger are less likely to be remembered by the general public, much less a crowd that specifically shows up for a Peanuts parody.)  But these moments can be ridden out and do not derail the work as a whole.

The play is a strong success on its small theater scale; last night was a sell-out, the reviews from the Hollywood Reporter and other arts magazines have been strong, and the show’s run has been extended, but only through March 10. If you’re in the L.A. area and want to see it, I’d suggest you arrange for that soon. (Having said that, I suspect that this play will have a life beyond this initial run, much as the Peanuts-as-adults Dog Sees God has, so you may have chances to see it in other places, with other casts.) This play is not for the delicate of sensibilities, as it does include nudity and harsh language. It’s not thematically aimed at your own little neurotic kids anyway, so don’t bring them along.

Absolutely Filthy runs Thursdays through Sundays until March 10 at the Sacred Fools Theater, 600 N. Heliotrope Drive, Los Angeles.

Added later: A cast member points out that the character I had interpreted as Bud Blake’s Tiger was actually based on Bill Watterson’s Calvin. Given as they played him with a black baseball cap and a white t-shirt, launching in about tigers, I think my confusion was understandable… but folks less versed in the strips may be unlikely to make my particular error.

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