Wife's Best Friend

Despite a facile resolution of the play's central conflict, Sylvia saves the day in the end. During the last scene, with Cozort as Sylvia off-stage, Greg regales the crowd with a wallet-size picture of her; the picture, simultaneously projected as a slide for the audience to see, is of a real dog. Cozort has imbued the scamp with so much personality throughout the evening that the actual animal seems to jump out and greet us like an old friend.

In Sylvia, Gurney handles relationships between people with too light a touch. Yet he imagines the inner life of a dog with enough richness to make up for his less-than-remarkable human characters. And in Caldwell's production, Kim Cozort gets under the skin of this vivid creature in a deliciously engaging star turn that warrants a trip to Boca Raton.

Sylvia. Written by A.R. Gurney; directed by Kenneth Kay; with Kim Cozort, Peter Haig, Cynthia Caquelin, and Stephen G. Anthony. Through September 1. For information, call 561-241-7432 or see "Calendar Listings.