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That's the play's stratagem and, in a way, its message. Much in the way Neil Simon's classic "The Odd Couple" parodies a declining marriage by means of two middle-aged male roommates, "Sylvia" uses a humanized dog to demonstrate how a third personality -- even that of a pet -- can wedge into the chink of an already dissolving marriage and force a chasm. She is both pet and symbolic mistress for Greg, who finds her one day in the park and brings her home to set in motion the marital discord that is the real topic of the comedy. Sylvia is written as both woman and dog, curling up on the couch at nap time but breezily commenting verbally on the action and even occasionally entering into the dialogue. Director Jonathan Wilson says he and actress Rohanna S. Doylida faced a big dilemma in deciding how to approach this anthropomorphic character. "I soon realized that the actress should have the mental framework of a dog but the behavior of a human," he says. "If you try to imitate a dog throughout, you'll have problems." That helps to clear up the focus of the play, he adds, which is the marriage. "If the actress spends all her time trying to imitate a dog, then it becomes a play about a dog, rather than one about a relationship and whether the husband will stay with his wife or be led astray" -- pun unintended, we presume. The point is a kind of balance, lending, the players hope, a fresh comic slant on men, women and pooches. "I'm having more fun," says Doylida, who has a pet Shiitzu herself and a mother who has four pet dogs. Doylida also spent time in Los Angeles "researching" the part at the home of a friend with a giant shaggy dog like Sylvia. Wilson is more celebrated for his work with serious drama and even tragedy, including many of the dramas of August Wilson and Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night." The switch to lighter comedy he finds a natural one. "There's a lot of humor in many of the more serious works I've directed," he says, particularly Wilson's rich, deeply complex portraits such as "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." He has worked with Doylida for some years now in various Touchstone productions and says the young actress has been poised for the right vehicle to show off her talents for some time. "She is charm personified and exceptionally talented," he says. "When we decided to do this, I knew she would be right for it." The drama, which won raves after its 1995 opening at the Manhattan Theatre Club, is also a departure of sorts for Gurney, who in his productive career has delicately examined the lives of the upper class W.A.S.P.: "The Dining Room," "The Cocktail Hour" and "Love Letters," for example.