NRT will perform “Dog Sees God,” a parody of Charles Schultz’s classic children’s series “Peanuts,” at 8 p.m. October 25-17 in 111 Forum.

NRT’s take on the classic cartoon follows Charles Brown (CB) and his hyperbolized, archetypical friends as they confront their sexuality, bullying, mental illness, drugs, fragile masculinity, and their toxic relationships with each other following the death of CB’s dog.

The play opens with CB explaining to his pen pal that his rabid beagle will be put down because he killed a yellow bird. He reminisces about the catharsis writing to a stranger provided when he was young, even though the recipient of his letters never responded.

CB fights with his sister at the dog’s funeral over who will say the prayer, which launches him into an existential investigation to find out what happened to his dog after death.

He seeks answers from his sister Sally, his homophobic best friend Matt, his stoner friend Van, and his mean girl friends Tricia and Marcy.

On this journey, CB also grapples with his own sexuality after years of bullying his childhood friend Beethoven for being molested by his father. He tries to deal with the consequences of his thoughtless actions.

“I’ve always enjoyed darker interpretations of classic characters so thats why I got into [Dog Sees God],” director Hope Weltnan said. “It was the first play I ever read.”

This is Weltnan’s second year with NRT and her first time directing a production.

She said that “figuring out the best way to go about [presenting the sensitive subject matter],” was a directorial challenge, and that she feared the crudeness of some scenes was “too much.”

“Everyone was a joy to work with, and we’re lucky the set is pretty minimal, but it was more figuring out the best way to figure out the subject matter,” Weltnan said.

“I’ve read [the play] many times through my life and every time I’ve taken something different from it,” Weltnan said. “It shows people at their absolute best and at their absolute worst. It’s a rare thing to see those two opposites in the same setting.”