Review: GOD OF CARNAGE at Desert Rose Playhouse

Your kid hit our kid with a stick on the playground - we want to make things right, don't you? Come on over to our place for coffee and clafoutis and let's discuss.

What seems civil enough on the surface very quickly goes wrong in Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage, playing now through April 21 at Desert Rose Playhouse, 6921 Montgomery Blvd. in Albuquerque. Alan and Annette Raleigh are invited to the home of Veronica and Michael Novak to discuss the repercussions of the Raleigh's son Benjamin hitting the Novak's son Henry with a stick on the playground, causing abrasions and dental damage. The tension is palpable from the beginning, with Veronica immediately jumping into Tiger Mom mode to protect her injured son. This puts the Raleighs on the defensive from the start, and sets up 90 minutes of verbal sparring, outbursts of anger, fits of self-loathing, nausea, exasperation and Alan's endless plethora of cell phone calls.

Karen Byers' portrayal of Veronica sets the tone for the piece - from the beginning she conveys an underlying sense of anger and tension that colors everything she says and does, which in turn colors the reactions from the rest of the characters. Byers was very convincing in both her reading and physicality - everyone in my party mentioned feeling uncomfortable right from the opening. Her relationship with husband Michael, played like a ticking time bomb by Christopher Chase, is obviously strained and both see this meeting with the Raleighs as an opportunity to vent about their lives on many levels - shades of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, anyone?

The tension is equally palpable between the Raleighs - Annette's nervous and incessant application of makeup and hair products is distracting and perhaps keeping her from dealing with her husband's nonstop communication with his law office - the amount of times his cell phone rings (and is answered) is crazy and causes even more tension. Alan seems to have a "boys will be boys" attitude about the altercation between his son and Henry, which adds even more fuel to this fire. Tasha Irvin plays the long-suffering wife who internalizes her anger and is seemingly oblivious to her husband's cell phone addiction. How she eventually expresses that anger is both comic and disgusting all at once. Bryan Durden's Alan is the guy you just want to punch, talking loudly on his cell phone with no regard for anyone around him - the quintessential privileged male who thinks the world revolves around him.

Most of the fun in God of Carnage is the anticipation - what is going to cause the bomb of anger (the God of Carnage) to explode and when will it happen? Is it Annette's fifteenth look in her compact? Alan's incredibly loud and distracting phone calls? Veronica's belittling of Michael's fear of rodents? Something has to give, and boy does it. The climax of the play is hilarious, ridiculous and inspired, and the audience breathes a collective sigh of relief when the tension finally breaks.

The Desert Rose Playhouse goes out on a limb with this production, and it succeeds. The tension is built and broken in perfect time, and the intimate space adds to the energy. If you are a lover of dark comedy, difficult relationships, and uncomfortable situations, go see this show. It's a wild ride.

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