In “God of Carnage,” the play starts with parents discussing the “uncivilized” behavior of their two 11-year old boys who get into a fight at the school playground. The “civilized” parents are meeting to see what lessons the children can gain from the experience.
Of course, the result is the parents turn out to less civilized than are their children. In “God of Carnage” playwright Yasmina Reza (who also wrote “Art”) explores the theory that civilization is a myth and people always resort to conflict when solving a problem.
It’s fascinating how such a somber premise can produce such a funny play. The production at Theater Barn in New Lebanon is 90-minutes long and for 70 of those minutes you are laughing. Sometimes you feel guilty at laughing at such bad adult behavior, but there is a lot of satisfaction at seeing the masks of pretension fall off the faces of well-to-do individuals who tend to be rather smug about their status in life. What we learn is that to some degree each person has his or her own set of insecurities that makes their convictions rather fragile and tenuous.
What provides most of the comedy is the switching of allegiances between the four. At one time or another they couple off in support of each other, but when pushed too far, they have the backs of their spouses.
This shifting is critical to the success of the show. Though each actor offers an excellent individual performance, this is a team effort. The four actors must work hard to find consistency in their character but still work as a unit to make their improbable revelations to strangers seem at least acceptable. This is a fine display of acting without dialogue as each character is actively involved in every moment of the play.
Credit for this goes to director Phil Rice who insists every character be consistent even if the material isn’t. He accomplishes this by setting a furious pace that does not give the audience a lot of time to think about the logic of the situation. However, even without time to think, you find yourself wondering why any couple would stay and debate in such a dysfunctional environment. Rice is also adept at adding physical comedy into the mix and if he errs by having Veronica sometimes too feisty and comically physical, his choices refresh what could be a stale talky play. The production does become repetitive about the 60-minute mark but Rice is able to find ways of keeping it interesting.
Each performer creates a portrait of people we believe might exist. Kathleen Carey finds all the comical insipidness within Veronica - a woman who craves control by using platitudes about behavior that are unarguable yet unsupported.
Brett Milanowski is terrific as Alan, a man who thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room. The international lawyer is a slave to his cellphone and doesn’t think it rude to conduct private business in public. He and Veronica might occasionally find general areas of agreement but they will never be true allies.
Considering that Michael just left his daughter’s pet hamster on a city street to fend for itself, Aaron Holbritter is rather endearing and very funny as this sarcastic blue collar man married to the pretentious and domineering Veronica.
Erin Waterhouse is Annette, a wealth-manager who is Alan’s quiet trophy wife, who seems willing to do whatever it takes to get along. However, as the night progresses she reveals herself to be the one person in the group that is able to question rather than just respond defensively to situations.
The production which runs through Sunday is so strong that it is long after the show’s ending that you realize that not a lot of anything went on within the play. There is no true moral, the behavior of the characters are almost despicable and there is little point to the entire play. But that said, “God of Carnage” at Theater Barn is a lot of fun.
“God of Carnage,” Theater Barn, Route 20, New Lebanon. Performances 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. 795-8989
Bob Goepfert is the arts editor for the Troy Record.
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