GOD OF CARNAGE Kicks Off Perseverance Theatre's 35th Season Tonight

Perseverance Theatre opens its 35th season with the 2009 Tony Award winner for Best Play, Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage translated by Christopher Hampton. The production plays from Sep. 13-Oct. 6, 2013 on the Perseverance Theatre Mainstage.

Tickets are available now through Hearthside Books, at the JACC, online at perseverancetheatre.org or by calling 907-463-TIXS (8497). There are two Pay-As-You-Can Performances on Sunday, September 15 and Thursday, September 19 at 7:30 p.m. and two Pay-As-You-Can Previews TONIGHT, September 8 and Wednesday, September 11 at 7:30 p.m.

Guest Director Pirronne Yousefzadeh directs this side-splitting free-for-all about two married couples meeting to sort out a playground fight between their sons. It's an uproarious send-up of modern parenting or the lack thereof! A Broadway hit and winner of the 2009 Tony Award for Best Play, God of Carnage takes a painfully funny look at parents whose behavior might just be worse than their kids.

Following a playground fight between two boys, their parents meet to discuss the incident. But a rational discussion among adults quickly devolves into a childish evening of name-calling, tears and tantrums. The San Francisco Examiner says "The fun of Reza's play is watching four skilled actors battle it out." Three Juneau favorites and one former Anchorage actor take the stage in this playground duel: Allison Holtkamp (Oklahoma!, Seminar) and Brandon Demery (Boom, I Am My Own Wife) play Alan and Annette Raleigh; while James Sullivan (Animals Out of Paper) plays Michael Novak. Guest artist, former Anchorage actor and now residing in Oklahoma City, Annia Wyndham rounds out the foursome playing Sullivan's wife Veronica Novak.

The production artisans consist of Artistic Director Art Rotch designing the set, Mike Inwood joins from New York designing lights. New University of Alaska Anchorage theatre faculty member, Colleen Metzger, design costumes. Betsy Sims from Juneau designs sound. Former production intern Jason Ginter returns to Perseverance to Stage Manage.

Yasmina Reza is a French playwright and novelist, based in Paris, whose works have all been multi-award-winning, critical and popular international successes, produced worldwide and translated into 35 languages. She has written seven plays (Conversations After A Burial, The Passage Of Winter, "Art," The Unexpected Man, Life X 3, A Spanish Play, God Of Carnage, How You Talk The Game) and 6 novels ("Hammerklavier," "Une Desolation (Desolation)," "Adam Haberberg," "Dans la Luge d'Arthur Schopenhauer," "Nulle Part" and "L'Aube, le Soir ou la Nuit (Dawn Dusk or Night)"). Films include: "Le Pique-Nique de Lulu Kreutz," directed by Didier Martiny and "Chicas," written and directed by the author. Interesting Fact: Reza does not give phone interviews, she hates e-mail, and she does not have a website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, or any other digital presence. She strongly resists ?lmed interviews, as well, preferring to talk only to print journalists if at all. She is often very passive in the interviews she does give, tending toward one-word answers like "formidable," and "superb." She explained this attitude in one interview: "After I write, I have nothing to say. . . . The commentary afterwards is super?uous. I write. And that's enough."

God of Carnage was originally produced in Zurich, Switzerland, in 2006 at the Schauspielhaus. It opened on Broadway in March of 2009, winning the Tony Award for Best New Play with a cast that included Marcia Gay Harden, Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis and the late James Gandolfini.

Performance Details: Performances of God of Carnage are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, with a 2 p.m. matinee on the last Sunday (October 6). There will be a Pay-As-You-Can Previews on Sunday, September 8 and Wednesday, September 11 at 7:30 p.m. and Pay-As-You-Can Performances on Sunday, September 15 and Thursday, September 19 at 7:30 p.m.

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