By Carol Davis
SAN DIEGO –If you’ve ever tried to run interference with your child’s ‘play’ or playground shenanigans you will understand why Yasmina Reza’s God Of Carnage is so spot on funny and tragic at the same time. Oh, I’m not saying that parents shouldn’t be aware of what takes place on the playground or that children shouldn’t respect one another’s space, I’m just saying that when parents get involved this way, right or wrong, it’s a lose-lose situation all around.
Tony Award winning playwright (“Art”) Yasmina Reza has a gift with words. In a 1998 interview in the American Theatre magazine she is quoted as saying, “In a play, words are parentheses to the silence…I always work by cutting down.” In her latest work, God of Carnage (translated from French to English by Christopher Hampton) Reza’s Tony Award winning Best Play, four seemingly intelligent adults get into a cat scratching battle over an altercation between their children.
So without any fanfare, those of us sitting in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre on opening night find ourselves, along with the Raleighs, in the expensive living room flat of Veronica and Michael Novak and smack dab in the middle of their conversation. Here is what we are privy to: The Raleighs’ 11-year-old son Benjamin hit their son, Henry in the face with a stick and “broke two incisors, including injury to the nerve in the right incisor.” It all happened in the upscale Cobble Hill Park that is supposed to be a safe haven for children to play.
And why is this important to know? It seems that Veronica went to great lengths to provide Alan and Annette Raleigh with the facts of what happened to her son and to ask the Raleighs if their son, Benjamin, might apologize. They could meet at their place. After all, says Veronica, “this is the art of co-existence.” Bring the two together, say the mandatory apology and show them the ways of their errors.
When the visiting couple agrees that, of course Benjamin “has to apologize,” one would think that the matter was settled even though Alan doesn’t seem to think that the children, or at least his son, has yet to master the art of co-existence. But they all agreed to a meeting nonetheless. Small talk follows and a funny thing happens before the couples part company.
It seems the more the couples talk, share a bit of food (clafouti with gingerbread crumbs), and booze the deeper the divisions become between them. The conversation takes a sharp turn, branches off into areas beyond anything having to do with the two 11-year-olds (how about hamsters?) and before we know it, an almost civilized meeting turns into street warfare with verbal bombs dropping in the most unlikely of places. Nearly destroyed are nearly everyone’s egos, not to mention the neatly appointed Novak apartment.
It is, as one reviewer put it, “brutally entertaining,” and I might add, riotous. Best of all, director Richard Seer knows how to squeeze the most out of the verbal and non-verbal absurdities that characterize this hilarious play.
Erika Rolfsrud and Lucas Caleb Rooney are the Novaks whose apartment will look like WWIII by play’s end. Both seem likeable enough with Veronica as the alpha female of the couple. She has a book coming out about the tragedy in Darfur and she contributed to a collection on the civilization of Sheba. So one might assume that she knows about civility. Well! Michael owns a domestic hardwood store and is deep into plungers, doorknobs and fondue pots (especially around Christmas). He’s a burley, huggable guy who, for a time goes along with his wife.
T. Ryder Smith is Allan Raleigh, a corporate lawyer who is addicted to his phone. All throughout the evening he struggles to put out fires for a big pharmaceutical company in difficulties with the media. He represents them. Caitlin Muelder is Annette, his wife. She deals in money matters and at times tries to hold things together but literally looses it, as she gets sick to her stomach and throws the entire group into mayhem as they stare at her in awe and bump into each other trying to clean up the mess she’s left behind. That includes the ruination of one of Veronica’s out-of-publication, books.
Four more talented and well-equipped actors could not have been chosen to represent these couples who manage to go between the lines and get it just right. I must admit that I did see the Broadway cast in Los Angeles last year and, of course, they were excellent. But this particular cast, well balanced as it is, has some standout moments that will resonate long after you leave the theatre. Watching Lucas Caleb Rooney’s Michael turn slowly from the nice soft-spoken agreeable husband who, after all the infighting decides to turn ape and ‘show his true colors’ is amazing. He is a hoot to watch.
Erika Rolfsrud is perfect as his in-control wife, Veronica, who looses her veneer and falls apart in front of our eyes. Watching her subtle transformation is like watching someone disappear into herself. Her performance is hard to beat. Muelder’s Annette, always trying to smooth things over finally breaks out of her Miss Nice role and takes down both men without blinking an eyelash. First she disposes of Alan’s cell phone and then she makes mince meat of Michael for what he did to his daughter’s hamster.
Smith is wonderful as the disengaged and almost absent participant, whose business dealings take him away from the fray most of the time but does manage a few zingers before he is stripped of his phone. Once that prop is gone, he too goes gooey. His tippy toeing like a praying mantis around the stage however, when he is on the phone, is a distraction.
Robert Morgan’s upscale New York living room set (he also designed the costumes) is perfect for the in-the-round stage. A serious problem on the White in-the-round stage comes when the actors are facing away from you and you can’t see their facial expressions nor hear what they are saying. For this reviewer, it is a chronic drawback.
Chris Rynne’s lighting and Paul Peterson’s sound design complete the picture rounding out an evening of laugh-out-loud fun watching adults in the company of other adults behaving very badly while trying to sort out their children’sbehaving very badly on the playground.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: through Sept. 2nd
Organization: The Old Globe
Phone: 619-234-5623
Production Type: Comedy/farce
Where: 1363 Old Globe Way
Ticket Prices: start at $29.00
Web: theoldglobe.org
Venue: Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre
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Davis is a San Diego-based theatre reviewer. She may be contacted at carol.davis@sdjewishworld.com