God of Carnage is by Yasmina Reza & Directed by Joel Greenberg. Part of the Studio 180 Off-Mirvish series at the Panasonic Theatre @ 651 Yonge Street.
I was front and center November
27th to see the God of Carnage to a full house on opening night. This award-winning
(originally in French) play has enjoyed worldwide success in many different
languages, debuting in English (translation by Christopher Hampton) in London’s
West End in 2008.
The play centers on two married
couples who are gathered in a living room and ready to discuss the matter of a one-sided scuffle
between their respective sons. The hosts are aggrieved that their son has been
the victim of a malicious playground assault by the son of the called-upon
guests. (A deliberate stick-thwack to the mouth).
The progression of the plot progresses like a drop of water rapidly nearing the surface of an undisturbed pond - calm
and untouched at first, but sent violently rippling upon contact. The
initial conversations follow this calm and civilised manner, with coffee and
snacks provided, however, this soon subsides into chaos and embarrassment for
everyone involved.
John Bourgeois and Sarah
Orenstein play Alan and Annette, the aggressor’s (Benjamin) parents, seen
somewhat as a fly-by-night unit when it comes to parenting. Alan, a lawyer, is
never off his mobile phone (into which he screams instructions
mid-conversation), much to the ire of his wife and the rest of the assembly.
Annette, seemingly timid at first, rapidly becomes one of the most boisterous
and frenzied characters, particularly after imbibing a large portion of the rum; produced as a reaction to the perpetual rounds of debate - watch out for projectile vomiting.
Tony Nappo and Linda Kash (both in
their Studio 180 debut) play Michael and Veronica, the beleaguered and not-so-subtle
snarky parents of Henry, who has lost two teeth in the incident under
discussion. Michael is the successful owner of a household goods company. Initially
seeming to be a Liberal-minded fellow (not unlike his wife), he eventually reveals
himself to be a disingenuous boor-cum-Neanderthal. The play charts his descent
from seeming-tolerance to total intolerance, and garnering the mutual abhorrence
of the group. Veronica is volatile, uptight and writing a book on Darfur. She
is judgmental, a sympathiser
and a hypocrite who doesn’t play well with others. She is the most obviously
conceited and passive aggressive, who is consistently trying to push sugar-coated
blame on Alan and Annette’s ‘obvious’ lack of moral judgement.
The overall feel of the play is of monumental
instability; with one character seeming to side with the other, just to dash this
all away in a flurry of harsh words the very next sentence. Yet, when the dullness
and trite introductions collapse into pandemonium not all is not lost in the
fray. There has been some room left for somewhat-subtle nuance, in the form of wandering
philosophical vignettes from the characters. We are granted only brief flashes
of humanity from them through this method; but the highly charged topics
(racism, prejudice, homophobia) and surface level beliefs overrule any substance
the characters were trying to prove of themselves. The result is a group of
irrational, angry adults masquerading as children, huffing, puffing and establishing
themselves as people you wouldn’t sit down for a beer with.
Joel Greenberg has done a great job
of direction, managing to maintain structure in a play that ebbs and flows rapidly
in pace and tone. The space on stage has been used to its fullest extent,
allowing for many moments of slapstick and physical comedy.
While it is a play that has some
clever moments, and Studio 180 has pulled off a great production, the play in itself falls short in being something that I connected with or had any profound
kind of message to convey. Each actor
held their own, but I couldn’t help feeling like a lot of it was too over-the-top
for me to fully commit to. When the veils had fallen off each character, they
may as well have been the same angry and cursing entity as far as I was
concerned. It has some flashes of brilliance, but for me it was simply that -
flashes. I would recommend it to someone looking for a chuckle, but don’t expect
to come away from a deep and thought provoking experience.
Tickets available at the Mirvish website.
Keep an eye out early next year
for Studio 180’s next production Cock by Mike Bartlett playing at The Theatre Centre 1115 Queen Street West,
Toronto premiering early next April.
Please #LOVELOCAL, it loves you.
Photo and Article by Graeme.