After laughing until their sides hurt, audiences left “Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead” grief-stricken and in tears.

The USI Theatre presented the student-directed play written by Bert Royal, which opened to a full house Thursday.

The play, which depicts the “Peanuts” characters as high school students, centers around CB (Charlie Brown) after his dog died and he begins to question not only the afterlife, but also his sexuality and how we treat people we consider different.

Without prior knowledge  thye show was senior Nolan Spinks’ directorial debut, one would have thought it was a professional show.

All of the actors smoothly blended playing their respective “Peanuts” characters with their respective high school stereotypes.

Most impressive of these were Collin Culiver as CB and Parker Hart as CB’s best friend, Matt.

Culiver managed to keep his usually self-absorbed — and at times despicable —character relatable.

Hart completely disappeared into the horrifyingly homophobic bully we sadly all know.

I have never wanted to beat a character with a baseball bat so badly before, which I can only credit to Hart’s acting talent and Spinks’ directing.

Other notable performances were D’Angelo Himes as Van, the stoner, and Tamarea Kramer as Van’s sister who was hospitalized for lighting another girl’s hair on fire.

Himes kept the audience laughing in every scene even  —  or maybe especially —  when he was being a fairly awful person.

Kramer gave a flawless performance ranging from psychotic, to pleasantly agreeable, to angry, to finally becoming the most empathetic and likable character in the play, even though she appeared only in one scene.

Despite the quick-paced story and shocking tone change, all of the actors’ chemistry was organic and genuine.

Overall, “Dog Sees God” proved to be one of those rare plays that actually manages to shed light on the cruel and ignorant state of today’s U.S. high schools and the best show the theatre has done so far this year.