One of the
characters in Yasmina Reza’s GOD OF CARNAGE (at Next Door Theatre through Nov.
22nd) postulates that the aforementioned god “has ruled
uninterruptedly since the dawn of time.” There isn’t any better evidence of
that than Reza’s outrageous comedy of bad manners (in a compelling English
translation by Christopher Hampton).
After a
schoolyard brawl, the parents of the two boys involved in the fracas meet for a
civilized discussion about what to do. It doesn’t end up being either civilized
or a discussion. To utilize the playwright’s descriptive, the get together is
“destabilized” faster than you can say Oskar Kokoschka (the condescending hostess’
favorite painter).
Director Joe Antoun’s
glossy production (on Brian Milauskas’ tony living room set) perfectly captures
Reza’s sardonic wit and sly trajectory from uncomfortable small talk and
feigned courtesy to flaming hostility and full out pandemonium. The adults
behaving badly are played by a formidable quartet: Brett Milanowski’s impatient
lawyer wants out of the room in the worst way, even before the gloves come off.
Milanowski’s body language speaks volumes, right down to a left foot poised mid
sole to vacate his chair.
Roz Beauchemin
gets the plum role of his financial analyst wife, a woman not afraid to
challenge her host’s shortcomings, where sentient beings as well as humans are
concerned. Allen E. Phelps is the ‘nihilist” who can’t tolerate either rodents
or liberals. Lisa Tucker as his wife is the self appointed expert on all
things, especially African culture, who seems even more tightly wound than the
other three (but not by much). It’s she who announces, “I have no sense of
humor and no intention of acquiring one.”
Thankfully Reza
does and she sprinkles it with abandon throughout the unadulterated nastiness.
You leave the theater shaking your head and thanking the heavens that you don’t
know these people.
