War of words

The laughs are lacerating in wonderfully played ‘God of Carnage’

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Playwright Yasmina Reza calls her plays “a theater ofnerves.” What a perfect description of “God of Carnage,” her 2009 TonyAward-winning play, running at the Creole Gallery in the capable handsof Peppermint Creek Theatre Co. 

Originally written in French and translated byChristopher Hampton, “Carnage” was a major success in Zürich, Paris,London and New York. In bringing this hot property to Lansing,Peppermint Creek artistic director Chad Badgero has once againconfirmed his impeccable instinct for the kind of inspired theaterthat’s been paying off for local theatergoers for nine seasons.

The storyline of “Carnage” concerns two upper-middleclass Brooklyn couples that meet to discuss a playground altercationbetween their 11-year-old sons, in which one of them has bashed theother in a face with a stick, knocking out a couple of  teeth.

The evening starts in a “spirit of reconciliation,” butit quickly degenerates into a raucous battle in which polite facadesand civilities collapse into violent verbal attacks and increasinglynasty and startling “gotcha” tricks. The children’s fight fades intothe background as questions about the meaning of civilized society, thenature of human beings and the desperately unhappy states of theirmarriages take center stage.  

The parents are the self-righteous Veronica, a writer whois working on a book about Darfur and goes around saying things like,“I don’t see the point of existence without some kind of moralconception of the world.” No wonder then that in the end it is she whobecomes most unhinged. Veronica is married to Michael, a self-madewholesaler with a fear of rodents (there are some hilarious linesinvolving a hamster). He also thinks that being “a fucking Neanderthal”is not such a bad thing.

The other parents are Alan, a corporate lawyer chained tohis cell phone as he tries to deflect a major crisis for apharmaceutical client with a bad drug on the market. His wife, Annette,simply describes herself as being in “wealth management” — and shemeans her husband’s. 

“Carnage” is a play that demands thatall four actors be equally skilled. One weak note in this fascinatingquartet of dueling banjos might have been disastrous.

No worries there. Badgero has assembled a sterling castin Heather Lewis, Allan I. Ross, Blake Bowen and Shannon Rafferty. Onthe solid foundation of Reza’s beautifully crafted and truthfully funnyscript, these actors have the mastery to take you on a wild ride ofdark comedy theatre.

Lewis, in her eighth Peppermint Creek appearance, is atthe top of her game as Veronica. Her performance becomes increasinglymanic and physical as she flings her slender body across the stagewhile hurling nasty insults at her guests and husband.

Ross, as Annette’s husband, Alan, makes his sleazy lawyerand reluctant father (and husband) both recognizable and surprising atthe same time. Ross (a longtime City Pulse staff member) simply getsbetter and better in every production.

Bowen and Rafferty are making theirPeppermint Creek debuts in this play, with Rafferty also a newcomer toMichigan. We can only hope they stay around.  Bowenis totally disarming as the complex, unhappy Michael, and Rafferty isat once funny, sad and vulnerable as Annette. She embodies thedefinition of natural comedienne.

In Paris, “Carnage” was performed in front of a concretewall split by a huge crack with animal howls being heard as the lightswent down. Peppermint Creek uses a blood-red living room wall panel asa backdrop to what’s about to happen, and there’s no animal howling atthe end.

But the essential question posed by the play is the same:Just as in the fictional “Carnage” characters, is there in each of us asavage waiting to spring when we least expect it?   


’God of Carnage’

Through Nov. 12

Peppearmint Creek Theatre Co.

Creole Gallery, 1218 Turner St., Lansing

8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10; Friday, Nov. 11,  and Saturday, Nov. 12

$15 adults; $10 students and seniors.

(517) 372-0945

www.peppermintcreek.org

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