Carnage Approaching
According to a 3.26 review of the London production of Tasmina Reza's God of Carnage, which starts previewing here on 2.28, it "savagely rips to shreds the pretensions of the liberal middle class." I've read about the London run, walked by this 45th Street marquee last night, and am figuring that any play with Jeff Daniels, Marcia Gay Harden, James Gandolfini and Hope Davis must have exceptional chops and content.
On top of which a straight play that the tour-bus crowd won't be flocking to (at least not initially) is right up my alley.
The setting, says the Herald Tribune/AP review, is "the comfortable home of a 40ish couple (Davis and Daniels, I'm guessing), and their uncomfortable guests are another couple (presumably Gandolfini, Harden), whose 11-year-old son has bashed their host's son with a stick, knocking out two teeth.
"The couples hope to resolve the situation amicably; they are deluded. Before long, their mild discomfort and unease have exploded in a torrent of anger, fear, jealousy and rage. There is drinking, fighting, vomiting and the destruction of tulips," all of basically feeds into "a living-room Lord of the Flies.
"Reza's plays have a serious thesis: liberal 'civilization' is wafer thin and we are all savages underneath. She insists her works are tragedies, not comedies.
"Whether this is profundity or philosophy-lite is debatable. It is, perhaps, typically British that in Christopher Hampton's punchy, fluent translation, the fury is played for laughs. Comedy or tragedy, God of Carnage is an expert piece of stagecraft, and savagely funny."
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on February 11, 2009 at 8:07 AM
comment #1
MikeSchaeferSF
says ...
"a straight play that the tour-bus crowd won't be flocking to"
Indeed, the best bets whenever I come to NY are plays; the 1/2-price TKTS booth lists them separately on the availability board so the yahoos won't accidentally see a non-musical (god forbid). And so tix for plays are always plentiful. Which remimnds me that when I saw August Osage County last year there was a father-and-son in the row behind me who were so overweight that they could not fit in the seats and had to ask for their money back (they also were unaware that AOC was 3-and-a half hours long and when they found out I think their heads nearly exploded). Meant to post about it at the time; it made me think of you, Jeff.
Posted by MikeSchaeferSF
at February 11, 2009 12:07 PM
comment #2
BurmaShave
says ...
Reza's back, finally. I really might have to make the trek up.
Posted by BurmaShave
at February 11, 2009 1:09 PM
comment #3
the400blows
says ...
I hope this play is nothing like the horrible August Osage County, but it sounds like it might be. What's with current American plays that are set in living rooms, have characters with a ton of secrets and are screaming at eachother, and are like TV sitcoms? Where are the brilliant playwrights like Pinter, Hare, Shepherd, etc.? I guess they're writing screenplays like Hare (and Pinter when he was alive).
Posted by the400blows
at February 12, 2009 5:28 PM