If dogs could talk ...

If you like dogs, chances are you'll love Sylvia, a comedy by A.R. Gurney about a man, his wife and the cute little mutt with "hybrid vigor" that comes between them.

Brunswick Little Theatre opened the play at Supply's Odell Williamson Auditorium under the direction of Ron Lee last weekend, but in an arrangement that expands BLT's recent tradition of performing shows in multiple Brunswick County locations, Sylvia will have a three-day run at downtown Wilmington's Brown Coat Pub and Theatre starting tonight.

The story focuses on Greg (Eben French Mastin), a middle-aged Manhattanite who brings home a stray dog, much to the dismay of his career-focused, socially minded wife (Victoria Chatfield). He names the dog Sylvia, but this is no standard-issue stray. Sylvia is played by an actress, Maureen Dewire, who exhibits some canine behavior (crotch-sniffing and the like) but walks on two legs and talks, except for when she barks, which sounds kind of like "hey-hey-hey!"

Greg's got an existential dilemma he can't quite define, and Mastin - who has some very funny moments, as well as some very poignant ones - is the very embodiment of midlife crisisdom, all slackening work ethic and soul-searching.

Come to think of it, Mastin's shaggy haircut and thick mutton chops give him a kind of dog-like appearance, all the better to connect with Sylvia.

At the core of the play's appeal is the very basic fact that it's just flat-out entertaining to see a person acting like a dog and saying the things a dog might say if it could talk.

And even if Chatfield feels a bit flat at times, and Dewire's expletive-filled rant at a cat doesn't go as far as it needs to, and Pete McLintock, who plays three very different roles, shows a tendency to ham it up, an engaging script and Lee's often inventive direction carries them through.