God of Carnage!

Yasmina Reza’s play God of Carnage shows off perfectly the irony is some of the modern families in today’s society. The curtain raises to a lovely living room, where two, apparently happy, couples are discussing their children. Veronica and Michael are discussing the injuries that Nanette and Allen’s son Benjamin inflicted on Henry that faithful day in the children’s playground. What starts off as a polite exchange between four adults quickly degenerates into a quarrel of intense proportions. Immature jokes, insults, and personal attacks are the least of it. Going great lengths to defend their child’s innocence, the two couples end up frustrated, exhausted, with no conclusion to their dilemma. 

Mostly, I did really enjoy this play. I found this experience very different from the usual french theater I attend. The humor is distinct and so it took some getting used to, but the play was extremely funny. The audience’s reaction was also something I noticed to be interesting: it seemed more like we were experiencing the live filming of a television series instead of an actual play. I also found the script very entertaining and unusual. The way it did not really have a traditional development, not a defined climax, made it continually surprising. I enjoyed the way the actors used the space by moving around, sitting in different places and standing up for their lines to keep the audience interested, since the decor never changed. The decor was a strategically organized living room, with three couches and multiple objects that could be used as props to keep the action going. I am sure this decor was thought of thoroughly to ensure maximum movement during the play.  

In the beginning, I thought I completely understood the personalities of the four characters. As the play continues though, the four adults show more of themselves and get to be a lot more complex than they seem. The four actors who played Veronica, Michael, Nanette and Allen were extremely talented and seemed totally at ease with their script and the audience. At one point, a prop was thrown accidentally in the audience, and the actress went to fetch it  as if it had been planned that way in the script, saying: “sorry about that”, causing laughter throughout the crowd. Overall, I laughed a lot during these ninety-seven minutes and I think that was the author’s goal when creating this play.