BWW Reviews: GOD OF CARNAGE Presents a Modern Comedy of Manners… Without the Manners!

A playground altercation between eleven-year-old boys brings together two sets of parents for a meeting to resolve the matter in GOD OF CARNAGE, now onstage at Santa Monica's Morgan-Wixson Theatre through February 8, 2015. At first, diplomatic niceties are observed, but as the meeting progresses and the rum flows, tensions emerge and the gloves come off, with the parents becoming increasingly childish, resulting in the evening devolving into chaos.

The original 2008 London production was widely acclaimed, receiving the Olivier Award for Best New Play of the year. In 2009, after some minor changes to the English script to accommodate American audiences, a Broadway production opened, leading to all four lead actors (Jeff Daniels. Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden) being nominated for Tony Awards for their performances with Harden winning as Best Actress in a Play. The Broadway production closed after 452 regular performances and became the third-longest running play of the 2000s. These four actors also graced the stage at the Ahmanson Theatre during a 2011 run of the play in Los Angeles.

As the play begins, all four parents seem to be concerned about working out the ramifications following their sons' playground confrontation when Henry Novak refused to let Benjamin Raleigh into his "gang" causing Ben to knock out two of Henry's teeth with a stick. Ben's father Alan Raleigh (Randy Brown) is a lawyer who is never off his cell phone trying to work on a high-profile problem for a client, much to the escalating annoyance of everyone else. Ben's mother Annette (Dalia Vosylius) is in "wealth management" (her husband's wealth, to be precise), and consistently wears good shoes and a holier-than-thou attitude leading her into more stress than pleasure.

Henry's father Michael (Matt Howell) is a self-made home goods wholesaler with an unwell mother who keeps calling, giving the audience an opportunity to see him at his Neanderthal worst. Michael's wife, Veronica (AnnaLisa Erickson) is a human rights advocate, writing a book about Darfur, and trying her best o keep things as civil as possible as the discussion progresses. But as the evening goes on, the meeting degenerates into the four getting into irrational arguments, taking sides against each other and forming new partnerships, leading each to degenerate into childish behavior, especially after Michael brings a 10-year old bottle of run into the mix. Things come to a head when Annette suffers a panic attack and vomits onstage all over the coffee table and Veronica's much loved books. Kudos to Ms. Vosylius for keeping it real, so much so that many audience members loudly groaned at her realistic heaving.

The play runs 80 minutes without an intermission. It is a very difficult play to stage given how each of the characters degenerate into such childish behavior yet must remain level-headed adults in order to keep the entire situation from turning into a farce rather than a contemporary satire on modern foibles. Director Michael Rothhaar successfully walks the line, allowing us to see how four very different people's attitudes on marriage and raising children can combust, allowing us to see the best and worst in them as well as ourselves.

GOD OF CARNAGE by Yazmina Reza, Translated by Christopher Hampton, directed by Michael Rothhaar, Produced by Anya Ivanova and William Wilday (who also designed the set and lighting) at the Morgan-Wixson Theatre, 2627 Pico Boulevard (Pico @ 27th Street), Santa Monica, CA 90405, January 17 to February 8 on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm. Reserved seats $18-20 online at www.morgan-wixson.org or call the theatre box office at 310-828-7519.

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